Divergence
by shadowwriter01
Summary: A sith experiment was meant to open the way in other dimensions. The result is the creation of a new past. Clone wars AU
1. Chapter 1

Star wars and it´s entire franchise belongs to George Lucas. The first chapter refers a few times to the novel "The crystal star" and other stories. It is also pertly inspired by star trek 2009, you will see in that way.

This is my first Star Wars story. I am curious about the possible respond, I could get. The story will start in the future, a few decades after "legacy of the force" and then become a clone wars AU.

Divergence

In a star system far away from the populated areas of the galaxy a ship, a old military light cruiser, was flying through space. It was heading to a remote part of the outer rim territory, a sector that was however infamous for it´s past. It had for generations been a centre of anomalies and dark side activities. On board of the ship was a group of jedi, led by the grand master Luke Skywalker himself. This group had to fulfill a certain mission.

Luke remembered how he had been in this part of the galaxy before. That had been decades ago. The old imperial space station, the crystal star, the black hole, Hethrir, one of the many darksiders he had met in his life. One of the many who had fallen.

He remembered how this Hethrir had planned to use the anomalies in this part of space for his own purposes. A black hole in this system, that had been circled by a crystallised star, had caused a rift in time and space and opened the way to another dimension.

All this years ago he had tried to use a creature from this dimension to strengthen his own powers.

Long time before that, this star system had been the showplace of the sinister activities of the empire and dark side experiments.

Now it seemed that another darksider was trying to do something similar. Over the last months they had gotten more and more information about the sith activities in this region. Finally he, his son Ben and a few other jedi were on the way to put an end to that. With them was a group of soldiers from one of the neighboring systems, that wanted to stop the threat, the sith were for them.

"Do you feel it?" Luke asked his son Ben, who was standing next to him.

"Yes", he answered, "I can feel it in the force. Something is strange in the entire sector. I feel the dark side. But it is different. It isn´t like the sith I have met before."

"They are doing something Ben. Whatever it is, it seems to influence the force itself", Luke explained to him. "The force, it feels different in this sector of space."

It never ends, Luke thought to himself. He had lost his father to the dark side and the empire, Mara, Jacen, his guardians Owen and Beru, Anakin, his nephew to the Yuuzhan Vong and countless others.

And every time another sith, dark jedi or warlord showed up to continue where the other left of. It never ended. Sometimes Luke was just tired, tired of all of it.

xxxxxxx

Somewhere else another person was having very similar thoughts as Luke. In the Crseih system, Darth Zorrowna, one of the sith lords in question, was currently on the new space station her master had built. The man who had trained her, Darth Iblis, was using the station for his darkside experiments. She had accompanied him to this place. But not so much out of faithfulness, not anymore. Zorrowna and her master had once been members of the new sith order, founded and led by the mysterious Darth Krayt. But her master decided to leave the order. He refused to submit to Krayt´s authority and so they were on their own.

Over the following years he had managed to recruit a group of other force sensitives. Acolytes who had sworn absolute loyalty to him. At least that had it been what they were in the beginning. First he hooked them with the promise of power, then he used the dark side to manipulate them in his interest and bind them to him until they were nothing but his pawns, more drones than followers. This force users were originally untrained and were still weak, but together they were a fearsome fighting force and served her masters purposes well.

Yes, Zorrowna had realised, they didn´t longer thought for themselves or asked any questions. She herself, if she was honest, had lost the trust in her master a long time ago. Like she had lost her trust in nearly everything else.

It was all senseless, she thought. For thousands of years the sith and the jedi had thought their war about their philosophies and the control of the galaxy.

Over 90 years ago the Sith came out of hiding, after 1.000 years in the underground. They had used this long time to prepare and undermine the republic.

Palpatine, Darth Sidious had, as everybody knew by now, started the clone wars and overthrew the republic. He declared himself emperor and founded the galactic empire, a modern form of a sith rule, a state based on order and strength. Or at least that is what it should have been.

But it was as if Palpatine had lost every hold on himself in the moment he came to power. The clone wars were one of the most destructive conflicts in history. Billions had died. Entire worlds were devastated. But the clone wars were a necessary means to the end. They had their purpose to secure the sith´s power and to weaken the republic and the jedi to took control afterwards. They had their sense.

What followed then was something completely different. One of Palpatine´s first actions in power as emperor was to eridicate an entire species. He ordered the planet Caamas destroyed and nearly brought the Caamasi race to extinction. Even worse was that he never actually succeeded in covering it up. Nobody could proof anything to him until years after his death, but nearly everybody knew or at least suspected who was responsible.

And for what? The Caamasi were pacifists who would have never raised a weapon against his empire. He killed millions for no good reason and what was even worse, he let information about it slip.

And that was only the beginning. Palpatine allowed technocrats, racists and fanatics so much power and free reign that they soon had more control over the galaxy than Vader and himself. Grandmoff Tarkin and other murderous bureaucrats. A man who ordered the destruction of entire worlds without blinking an eye and made every sith lord she know friendly in comparison.

Instead of the dark side and the cunningness that brought him into power in the first place, Palpatine was now relying on weapons of mass destruction and terror to subdue the population. Like the death star, a moon sized battle station that could destroy an entire planet. Tarkin ordered the destruction of the world Alderaan and that let to the escalation of the war.

And again for what? All what he reached was to make the empire even more hated as before.

It went even further. The racists had so much influence in the empire that a policy that systematically discriminated nonhuman species came up. This went even that far that ultimately so called imperial death ships were created. These ships had the sole purpose to travel the outer rim territories and whipe smaller races out that, for whatever reason, didn´t fit into the picture of the empire.

It came as it had to be. All this led to a galactic uprising against the empire. Of course it did. Had Palpatine truly thought even a sith lord could get away with things like that? Even she, another sith, thought that was insane.

In the end Palpatine was killed by his own apprentice. But the civil war continued for another 15 years. A few of the super-weapons Palpatine had built were ironically used against his own planets. Alderaan, Byss and Carida, all three worlds were completely destroyed. Hundreds of others were ravaged. Billions over billions died in the war, entire civilisations were whipped out.

Then, a few years later, came the Yuzhan vong and overrun the galaxy. The destruction and slaughter they have caused were even greater then everything before. They were stopped, but not before the entire galaxy lay in pieces.

Ten years later the second galactic civil war began and Darth Caedus came, Jacen Solo. Luke Skywalker´s own nephew became a sith and tried to reestablish their rule. There was only one problem. Darth Caedus was a idiot. That was at least Zorowna´s opinion.

Caedus claimed to stand for right and order, but his actions always clearly spoke a different language.

He always claimed that he wanted peace, but he constantly provoked other systems against him and blocked every chance to end the war. Ironically even when this peace would have left him in power.

He claimed to be the legitimate head of state, but he changed the law that allowed him to overthrew and arrest his predecessor only the day before he took power.

Jacen, she thought, one thing for starters. You shouldn´t always run around, claim to be the rightful and legitimate ruler and call others, who are against you, traitors the entire time, if your own takeover was a obvious plot. Trust me, nobody would believe you. And then, you should at least keep your mouth shut and not brag the entire time about how "legitimate" you are.

In short, Caedus was constantly attacking people and breaking his word and then wondered then this people were turning against him. In the end, Caedus had succeeded in uniting nearly the entire galaxy. Yes, the sith lady thought sarcastically, in the fight against him, a fight that of course led to his death.

This was where they stood now. What was left was the one sith. Darth Krayt´s sith order. This order had abandoned the rule of two, that only allowed two sith lords at the same time and replaced it with the rule of one. Now a large number of sith existed, who were all loyal to the one, the order itself and to Darth Krayt.

And that was the problem. It looked often as if Krayt was the only thing that kept the order together.

When he will die, his order would probably break apart. Then a new age of chaos would begin for the sith and everything that the order had reached would be meaningless. They would probably start killing each other again, like they did before Darth Bane. That was one of the reasons she and Iblis had left.

Zorrowna was a sith. As such she had no scruples to kill then it served her aims. But even she knew the difference between killing to reach her aims and senseless slaughter. They and the jedi had ripped the galaxy apart, devastated it and laid it to waste, again and again. And what had they actually reached? Nothing, nothing at all.

It was all senseless and there was no end in sight. At some point, she thought, even a sith lord had enough.

She had been raised by the order and educated to be a believing member. But over time Zorrowna had lost trust in nearly everything. In the last time, especially in her master. In the time after they had separated from Krayt, he had been searching for ways to strengthen his own powers.

He came across the story of the dark jedi Scon, who had performed dark side experiments in this system, in the last year of the clone wars. Scon had wanted to use the abnormal characteristics of this part of space and tried to combine them with the dark side of the force. In that way, he was convinced, he could open the gate to other dimensions and become a god.

Before he could reach anything however, he was stopped by Anakin Skywalker and Obi wan Kenobi. By the information they had, Scon was killed in a lightsaber duel with Skywalker.

But before this, he had made plans and invented mechanics to realise them. A combination of science and dark side techniques. With that, so he thought, the boundaries of this universe could be opened and the powers of other dimensions could be assembled and concentrated.

There was of course another possibility. The one that Scon had simply been a completely delusional madman. Just like her master obviously was.

Darth Iblis, after reading about all this, tried to duplicate Scon´s techniques and built this space station. Zorrowna on her part had more and more doubts about her masters sanity.

_Flashback, the last year of the clone wars (ca. 2 weeks before the battle of coruscant)_

A group of jedi, consisting of Anakin Skywalker, his former master Obi wan and his padawan Ahsoka, assisted by republic forces, were engaging the dark jedi. While Anakin was fighting Scon himself, Obi wan, Ahsoka and a command of clones were dealing with his followers. Scon was one of the jedi who had fallen to the dark side. During the war, he had influenced two other jedi and a large number of non force users to follow his way. Around Anakin and his adversary were the corpses of a group of people. Six men and women, who were lying in a circle around the place they were fighting now. They had been used as some sort of ritual sacrifice for whatever Scon was planning here. He and Obi wan came to late to safe them. Anakin couldn´t help it, he was angry. He knew he shouldn´t as a jedi. But it had already to many people died because he didn´t came in time. Like his mother, like so many others. Killed by monsters like this one.

"You can not stop me Skywalker. You and your friends won´t win. The power of the universe will be mine and you will all die", Scon called out.

Anakin didn´t listen to anything the lunatic had to say. He avoided one of the dark jedi´s strikes and then sliced his own lightsaber through his chest. In the moment Scon was hit, a explosion of dark side forces erupted around him. After a few moments, his body was burned away, as if it had absorbed too many dark energy, that was suddenly released as he died. A short time later Obi wan and Ahsoka came into the room.

"Anakin", his former master asked, "is everything alright?"

"Of course master. Scon is no more", Anakin said, looking at the remains of the dark jedi.

"Master, the two other dark jedi are dead. The clones have taken Scon´s other followers prisoner. We have won", Ahsoka told him.

"Good", Anakin answered, "the republic will take control of this place and end this once and for all."

_End flashback_

xxxxxxx

Luke realised that the disturbances he had felt had become even stronger, when they had reached the star system where they originated. Their ship had just entered the border of the system. All the jedi on board felt it. It was as if time and space itself were disturbed.

Ben approached the leader of the soldiers they had on board.

"Are you ready Colonel?" He asked him.

"I can´t await it", the man said to him grimly.

"You are angry and happy about the chance to attack the sith", Ben stated, reading the man´s feelings.

"This group had attacked my system several times, Knight Skywalker", the officer answered him. "They killed many people, stole material they wanted, even kidnapped citizens, we have never seen one of them again. Of course I am happy about every chance to stop them."

"Of course", Ben told him. "It is completely right that you feel that way", he said in a friendly tone.

"But let me tell you one thing. If you were a jedi, my father would say that anger leads to the dark side. You are not a jedi, but believe me for normal people it isn´t a good thing too. I know that from the war. I know how it is to loose someone. Your anger should end with this mission. After we have succeeded of course", Ben added and smiled.

Ben Skywalker was by now, one of the most famous jedi knights in the galaxy. That not only because of his power and his track record of victories, but his ability to relate to people. He himself had lost his mother and was betrayed by his teacher, Jacen Solo.

In one of the other rooms, Luke was meditating to prepare himself for the fight. This disturbances in the force were more disturbing to him then he had wanted to admit right now. He could feel that something was about to happen, something worrisome. As he was deep in his meditation, he heard a voice.

"Hello Luke, it has been a long time my son."

He opened his eyes. Before him stood someone, he never expected to see again before this life ended for him and he became one with the force.

It was the force ghost of his father, Anakin Skywalker.


	2. Chapter 2

I have received a large number of story alerts for the last chapter and someone put divergence in the favourite story list, thank you for that first. Reviews on the other hand not so far. They would be of course even more welcome. Critic is always important.

Chapter 2

"Father", Luke said. "I thought you and the other wouldn´t appear to me anymore and let me go my own way. It had been decades since I saw you the last time."

Luke couldn´t say he wasn´t happy to see his father, but as far as he knew, the older force ghosts, the ones of his fathers and Obi wan´s generation, had completely disappeared from his and the other jedi´s life's.

"Something is different now Luke. What this sith are doing is corrupting the force to a deep level, like we have never seen it before", his father explained.

"Yes I have felt this too", Luke answered him.

"Luke you should know we have the ability to appear in this world even a long time after our death, if we want. We feared however, that our presence would be a too great influence for you and you would grow too dependent on us. And your new jedi order would have never been able to stand for itself."

So this was the explanation. His father´s, Obi wan´s and the other force ghost´s reason for staying out of his life. Luke realised that somehow his father was right. If he, Obi wan and Yoda had been around, he would have asked them for assistance with every single decision he made.

"Your new order is actually, in many ways, superior to the old one. The old order was to a great part corrupted, stuck in their own ways and unable to adapt or over think themselves."

"A interesting statement from somebody who fell to the dark side himself", Luke remarked. He didn´t like it to talk to his father about this like that, but it was in the end the truth. And they were both jedi masters.

"That is true. But I was not the only one who fell during this days, probably not even the worst either. The old order thought that attachment and special connections to anyone could bring you to the dark side because this feelings could be manipulated or simply get out of control. For that reason I had to hide my marriage to your mother. What they completely oversaw or simply not wanted to see was that indifference in the end drives far more people to the dark side than caring", his father told Luke.

"Was that the reason you turned?" Luke wanted to know.

"One of them. But far more important was Palpatine, always manipulating me from the background, using my fears against me. Like you know by now I feared that your mother could die in childbirth. I had foreseen it in my dreams, like the death of my own mother before. For years, even before I turned completely, I have blamed Obi wan and the jedi for it. Because they kept me from going back to Tatooine and help her. Palpatine made that easy to turn me against them. I blamed them for my mother and later for Padme too."

"It seems to be very easy to you to talk about all this", Luke pointed out.

"Death makes a lot of things much easier my son. In this state, I am able to see things from a universal point of view, not longer only my own."

Anakin halted for a moment, choosing his next words carefully.

"I hated them for years for it, make no mistake here. And I was blind for the fact that my failings were even greater than the ones of the order. I have never forgiven Obi wan till his death."

"You really thought the jedi were responsible for their death?" Luke asked.

"They **were **responsible Luke. That is the whole irony. Not in Padme´s case, but in my mothers they were. Now that I am one with the force I have access to great knowledge. The jedi knowingly cut off every contact of their recruits to their families, to sever every connection they had outside the order in a young age. That of course made many jedi blind for everything that outside the order. This was the reason I was never allowed to go to Tatooine and help her years earlier.

The only difference now is that I no longer hate them for what had happened. This things were already going on for centuries at this point. They didn´t know any better. Like you told me Luke, I let go of my hate. The jedi were flawed Luke, exactly like I was even more so and Palpatine took advantage of it. This was one of the flaws your jedi order needed to get rid of. That was one of the main reasons we never appeared to you, you would have only overtaken our mistakes."

"I understand father", Luke answered him.

"Luke I see time now different then you would. A human life is very short. Soon we will have the eternity. You, I, your mother and all the others, especially a woman named Mara, she is waiting here for you." Anakin smiled at him.

Through his words somehow Luke felt better as he had for years.

"But something have changed now", Anakin continued. "The experiments this sith lords are doing are threatening the reality like we know it. They have continued something that was originally started at the end of the clone wars. I was the jedi who had ended it originally, so I am here to inform you about it."

"Tell me father", Luke instructed Anakin, "tell me everything you know."

xxxxxxx

The group of dark cloaked figure were standing in a circle around two men. One of them was a tall, thin human man with brown hair, the other a devoranian. They were holding some sort of dark side ceremony. The sense of the six, who were forming the circle, was it to channel and concentrate the dark side energy for the procedure. The two beings in the circle were the centre of the ceremony.

The human activated his light saber and with a single swing, cut the devoranian down. Through this act the live energy of the unlucky being was flowing inside the construction around them and from there into the surviving man in the middle of the circle. When the ceremony was over the man in the middle, Darth Iblis spoke loud to the others.

"My loyal acolytes, you have done good. I am sure we will reach our goal very soon", he announced.

Acolytes? Zorrowna thought. No, drones. Iblis was by now controlling the minds of the others, of everyone except her, with the force.

"This has already been the third. How long will it continue like that?" She asked the acolyte next to her, a female zabrak.

"It is a honour to serve the master. Sacrifices have to be made." That was all she answered to the question. Zorrowna hadn´t expected more either.

The other force users, Iblis had drawn to his side, were now only tools to his will. As far as she could tell, she was the only one besides Iblis on the station who still had her free will.

This entire space station was basically a giant collector for dark side energies, with the single purpose to rip a hole into time and space. In the last time she was getting more and more doubts about the mental state of her master. To be honest without the blind loyalty of his zombie like followers, she would have stabbed a lightsaber in his back, a long time ago. But then the others would probably kill her.

One thing was clear for Zorrowna. She wouldn´t let herself be sacrificed like that.

The alarms on the station were going on. Another acolyte was standing on the sensor console.

"Master", he called out, "the sensors have detected a fleet of ships that has entered the star system.

"Ah", Darth Iblis exclaimed, "they are coming to keep us from our way to absolute power. I haven´t thought that the alliance would be able to send so many ships out here. But don´t worry my children", the sith lord called out loud, "this insignificant mortals cannot stop us on our way."

Insignificant mortals? Can not stop us? Zorrowna thought. They have a entire fleet and we are only a few men and she could feel a number of jedi under the attackers. And he acts as if that is not so important.

He has lost his mind. There was no doubt there anymore. She was serving a madman. But at least for now, she had no choice.

xxxxxxx

Luke saw this star system for the first time in decades. One of the first things he realised after seeing the black hole, that was the core of this system, was that a large, dark looking space station had taken the place of the crystal star.

The crystallised sun, that had originally circled the black hole, had caused, through it´s gravitational effects, anomalies in time and space. That was till it was finally swallowed by the singularity nearly sixty years ago.

But now the space station had the same effect and that even strengthened by the dark side of the force. Luke could feel the nearly unlimited dark energy that was surrounding the station and despite all his experience, he was shuddering from that he saw here.

xxxxxxx

"Let us await them my loyal followers", Iblis said in a loud and authoritative voice. All of Iblis acolytes were assembling on the central deck of the station.

"Master the fleet, that we have detected, it has vanished. It is simply no longer there. Master", he said a moment later, "I have now detected another ship. It is already docked on the station and the intruders are already on board." He said the last part in a stunned tone.

The shocked expression on the man´s face was exactly mirrored by Iblis. The same expression at the same time. That was only another hint that the acolyte was nothing but a living puppet. But a moment later it turned into something resembling pride.

"Skywalker", Iblis spoke the word with great importance, "he is here. The fleet was one of his illusions. He personally came here to stop me, but he will fail like everybody else."

Zorrowna had already heard that the jedi grandmaster was so powerful in the force that he could create force illusions of entire fleets that could even deceive trained force users. Now she had seen it herself.

"Let us await them my children", Iblis said with a proud smile.

Zorrowna wasn´t so hopeful. She had to face Luke Skywalker and who knows how many other jedi with a group of brainwashed zombies and a lunatic as allies, who would always simply kill her to absorb her powers.

A few minutes later a group of soldiers and a few jedi stormed inside the room. Iblis just smiled at them.

"Kill them", he ordered in an instant.

All of Iblis followers draw their lightsabers or opened fire with blasters. A moment later, nearly everybody was involved in a fight.

Iblis dark side acolytes killed a number of soldiers, but a few of them were either stroked down by the jedi or shot by the soldiers too.

Jedi master Luke Skywalker stepped for.

This man, Zorrowna remembered, was once educated by Palpatine´s clone and was meant to replace his father Darth Vader as dark lord of the sith. He was the most powerful force user in the galaxy and could have destroyed Darth Caedus easily if he had been willing to join the dark side. He could have been the most powerful sith of all times, if only he had decided for it. Actually, Zorrowna realised, she should admire this man.

"This has to end", Luke Skywalker said loud. "What you are doing here is threatening to destroy time and space how we know it. Your own experiments are a danger to your life's. Surrender and we can try to repair the damage you have already done and bring you all to safety."

Zorrowna knew deep down that everything the jedi master had said was the truth.

But it was Iblis who answered Skywalker.

"This station is my gate to other dimensions and my key to eternal power. I will surrender it to nobody. Nobody will stop me Skywalker, not even you."

With this words he aimed a storm of force lightning at Luke Skywalker, who reflected it easily with his lightsaber. Right afterwards Iblis attacked the jedi master with his lightsaber.

Zorrowna stood before another jedi, a middle sized man with red hair.

"You are Ben Skywalker, right? The son of the grand master."

"Yes I am", he answered.

This had to be the second most dangerous enemy. It was either staying in Iblis service and risking to be killed by him sooner or later or surrendering to the jedi and hoping that they could defeat Iblis. She draw her light saber. The best thing, she thought, would be if Iblis and Skywalker destroyed each other.

One of the jedi, a male twilek, killed another of the acolytes. In the moment the woman died, a flash of energy went through the entire station and finally into Iblis, who absorbed the live force. The jedi however was right afterwards killed by a acolyte, who stabbed him from behind the lightsaber through the chest.

"Every soul that is sacrificed to me makes me stronger", he told the jedi grandmaster.

"I have the live energy of all the ones who have died for me in me."

Iblis sent another wave of force lightning to Skywalker.

Zorrowna realised that he was right. Iblis was absorbing the energy of everyone of his followers, who was dieing. That would also mean the remaining acolytes and herself and with all that power, he would also be a match even for someone like Skywalker. Zorrowna was starting to become really afraid now. No matter which one of the two would win, it could easily be the end for her.

xxxxxxx

Eighty years earlier, the clone wars

Anakin, Obi wan, Ahsoka and a team of clones were on their way through the space station. They had managed to come on board undetected, but very soon they would be confronted with the renegade jedi Scon and his followers.

Suddenly Anakin saw something. In the empty room, it was as if two figures were appearing out of nothing. They were transparent and at first only unclear to see. Two jedi, no a jedi and a sith. It was a blond man who, as Anakin thought, had a great resemblance to himself and a man who was wearing a red lightsaber and was trowing force lightning at the other. A heartbeat later they were gone.

"Master is something?" Ahsoka asked him.

Anakin realised that he was starring in an empty corner.

"No Ahsoka, it is everything alright."

xxxxxxx

The force lightning was slowly taking his toll on Luke. He was considerable weakened.

On the other side had he been able to cause Iblis a shoulder wound, that made it harder for him to fight.

Luke was still stronger in the force than his opponent, but the problem was when one of Iblis followers died, he would go stronger. While Luke got weaker and weaker. He had to end this fight was obvious that Iblis would neither listen to him or go back to the light. So Luke started a new attack with all his strength.

On the rest of the battlefield, the jedi were slowly getting the upper hand. Ben was involved in a fight with one of the last acolytes. This of course kept him from paying attention to anything else at the place.

For Luke, it was now the point to put an end to the fight. Iblis had managed to land a hit at his arm. Only a light wound,Luke thought, nothing serious. He was now attacking the sith lord´s shoulder again. Iblis was able to deflect the first blows, but the last one went through his weakened defence. Luke hit him at the shoulder and sliced his lightsaber straight through his chest. The sith fell to the ground, his body cut clean into two halves. At the same time the dark side energies, he had absorbed, were releasing themselves in a violent outbreak. The energy exploded around Iblis body, that was completely consumed by blue flames. Luke was hit by the out-load too.

Zorrowna had just seen how her master fell, good. Now the jedi grandmaster was standing directly before her. He was weakened and seemed to be disoriented at the moment. She raised her lightsaber.

Zorrowna realised that she didn´t actually wanted to do this very much. This man had much she looked up to. Even if he stood at the, from her position, wrong side. He had often been close to becoming a sith. But he never really stepped over. Despite that she had more respect for him than the most sith lords she knew of.

But no sith would actually miss this chance if they got it. Zorrowna attacked.

She took a swing and stabbed the jedi master in the chest. For a moment everything was quiet. She realised that her blade had gone right through his body.

The grandmaster and the sith were looking at each other. As if they had not yet realised what had just happened.

In some distance they heard somebody screaming.

xxxxxxx

Anakin had just made the final strike. Scon´s dead body fell. As with many darksiders, his death caused a violent release of dark side energies. At the moment the outburst hit him he saw the figure again. A few metres from him stood the transparent silhouette of a blond jedi knight. The figure held his hand to him. As the man touched him, it went straight through his body. But then Anakin was flooded with memories. Memories that were partly his. A life he had not lived yet.

Palpatine, Darth Sidious, he remembered, Darth Vader, the empire, the purge of the jedi, Caamas, the death star, Alderaan, Endor, Byss and Carida, the Yuuzhan Vong and many other things.

And in the moment Anakin Skywalker fell to the ground, he remembered everything.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Ben saw his father being wounded and then collapsing. He wanted to run over to him and help him, he wanted nothing more. But he couldn´t do anything. He and the other jedi were still occupied with fighting Iblis remaining followers. As he saw his father killing the sith lord, he thought it was over, but he was wrong.

The jedi had realised from the first moment that something was wrong with the force users at this station. They were obviously controlled through by the sith lord through his powers. All of them had lost their capability of independent thinking, all except the sith apprentice with them. Ben and the other jedi had hoped that this lobotomised darksiders would not longer be a threat if their master had been taken care of. But they had been wrong. The acolytes didn´t just lied down, as they had hoped, then their strings were cut. They went berserk. Even if they had wanted to avoid it, the jedi had to fight to the last man.

Now Ben saw his father falling down, while he was still fighting one of the darksiders. He couldn´t do anything. Ben knew they had to end this fast. Someone was approaching them from the side. Then another lightsaber blocked the blade of the acolyte who tried to make a strike. Ben saw that Valin Horn was now engaging his enemy and giving him the time to help his father. While Valin was taking over his fight, Ben was running to Luke and the sith apprentice. But it was to late. He saw how the body of his father vanished from existence. Luke Skywalker was not longer there. Only his empty clothes and his lightsaber fell to the ground. Ben knew what that meant. He had seen this a few times before with other jedi. Even with his mother. Luke Skywalker had become one with the force. He was dead. While he could still appear to others as a force ghost, his mortal existence had forever ended.

The sith apprentice, a young woman, was still standing and starring at the place where Luke´s body had just disappeared. As if she couldn´t believe herself what she had just done.

xxx

As she realised Ben coming closer to her, she draw her lightsaber again.

Zorrowna looked down at what had happened a moment ago. She had just come to realise, that she had killed Luke Skywalker, the most powerful force user in the galaxy.

As much as she tried, she couldn´t feel much satisfaction about it. She was still surrounded by enemies and it was questionable if she would even leave this place alive herself. Skywalker had been weakened and disoriented as she had killed him. So it hadn´t even been a great achievement on her part.

And it was something that could get her killed right now. Jedi or not, she had just killed their decades long leader. If only one of them would decide to simply ignore their self obligated rules, it could be her end. She realised that Ben Skywalker was here too. Zorrowna began to feel that she may have made a great mistake.

She felt in the force that someone was coming. As she looked up she saw that it was Skywalker´s son. A wave of fear came over her. She draw her lightsaber.

Was the son trying to avenge his father?

She stroked at him to engage him before he himself could attack. Zorrowna realised that the last fights had weakened her more as she thought. She was in the same situation as Skywalker only moments before, she realised the irony.

The younger Skywalker deflected her attack and in her state it was easy for him to get behind her defence. She could feel his blade piercing through her stomach. The heat was burning her insides for a moment and then she went to her knees. Zorrowna questioned the force, she knew she was dieing. She felt the mind of the man before her. Sadness, hurt, shock, anger, that he couldn´t do anything, that he wasn´t able to help him.

Then she realised it. There was anger, hurt and pain, but no killing intend.

The jedi hadn´t been trying to kill her, he just wanted to help his father. She had engaged him into a fight and died, she realised, for nothing.

"You, you didn´t try to, you didn´t want to kill me?" She said quietly. As she had said this, she lost all strength and her vision became dark. Her head sank to her knees.

Ben realised the sith apprentice had thought he was trying to kill her because of his father and tried to fight him. Irony his father and the jedi order had thought him his entire life not to search revenge. As Jacen killed his mother, he had tried to kill him for it, but his father stopped him. And now the sith who had killed his father died because she thought he would do exactly that.

What happened then was something Ben really shocked. As the sith had died, her body started to disintegrate. But it wasn´t the simple vanishing of a jedi master and not the powerful unleashing of dark force energy, that ate the body of a dark jedi up. Lightning flashed through her entire body and it disappeared part by part, as if it transformed into energy. After a few seconds she was gone.

"Do you feel this?" Ben heard Valin ask. He looked around. The jedi had won. The acolytes were all dead. Not that there had been much left of the people they had once been in the first place. Still the jedi had hoped that it would be possible to save them. But they had left them no choice. The fight was over.

In the force however, Ben felt something more frightening than ever before.

xxxxxxx

"Anakin", his former master asked, "is everything alright?"

No he was not okay, Anakin thought silently. He has just seen a vision of the future. But one like he had never before. He had not seen a few glimpses, he had seen the entire future. A complex picture of the things that could be. All this was now in form of memories in his head. Two of them were more vivid than all the others.

Palpatine was a sith and Padme would die. His friend, he had known and trusted for years, was the sith lord who had caused the war and his wife could die if the things wouldn´t change.

The future he had seen was a nightmare. The galaxy would fall into endless wars. Entire planets and civilisations would be destroyed.

But nothing of this was as personal as this two things.

Could he really trust the things he had seen? For a moment didn´t know what to think. Yes, he realised then, the vision was real, he felt it through the force. But that didn´t make it easier.

Anakin tried to concentrate. It wasn´t easy. The force felt even more strange than earlier.

"I don´t know Master." That was all he could say at this moment.

Obi wan looked at his formers padawan. He knew something had happened to Anakin. Since the moment he had killed the dark jedi, his feelings had been confused and he was in a state of shock.

"Anakin I know something is wrong with you", Obi wan urged him.

"We can talk about this later", Anakin answered his mentor. He didn´t feel as if he could talk about this now, he didn´t even knew if it was real. But he knew he would have to inform the other jedi about what he had seen soon.

"Anakin your feelings are confused and your mind is a chaos. Every jedi could feel that. Something has happened to you."

Obi wan knew that something unusuall was going on with his friend.

"Master by all respect", Anakin told him, "could you this single time just shut up and let me search my feelings, like you told me so often. We can talk about this than I can tell the difference between left and right again."

Ahsoka had a grin on her face as he said this to the jedi master. Obi wan stared at Anakin flabbergasted for a moment. He realised that Anakin would probably really need some time to adjust to whatever happened to him. It was to early to talk about it.

"Good. We can talk when you are ready", he said to Anakin.

"Are you really okay?" Ahsoka asked him concerned.

"I will deal with it. Like I told Obi wan, we will talk about it later", he assured her.

"Master, the two other dark jedi are dead. The clones have taken Scon´s other followers prisoner. We have won", Ahsoka informed him.

"Good", Anakin answered, "the republic will take control of this place and end this once and for all."

xxx

Where am I? He was thinking.

The last thing Luke remembered was that the sith had stabbed him and then he saw Ben coming for him.

Suddenly he saw his father standing before him, not the way he usually appeared to him but many years younger. Luke reached with his hand out to him. But in the moment they should have touched each other, he was flooded by memories.

He saw his, no Anakin´s youth on Tatooine as a slave, he saw the jedi, Qui gon and Palpatine´s manipulations, the death of his mother and what happened to the tusken raiders and he saw the clone wars, Anakin´s role in it.

And then he was suddenly here, standing alone in a room he had never seen before.

He was on a space station, he could see, but not the one from earlier.

Am I dead? He asked himself. Luke looked at his hands. They were transparent and glowing in a blueish light.

He realised that he could feel the force to a far greater extend when ever before. As if he was now completely a part of it.

Yes, that was exactly what he was. He was a force ghost, there was no doubt about it.

But why was he here and not the place where he died? And where was he anyway?

In some distance he saw a group of people. Three of them were jedi and they were arguing with each other. One was the young version of his father. Next to Anakin was Obi wan Kenobi, who was also many years younger when Luke had met him the first time. Was he actually in the past?

The third jedi was a young female togrutan, who Luke had never seen before.

With them was a group of armoured soldier who looked very much like stormtroopers. They were clone-troopers, he remembered. This looked like a scene out of the clone wars. But was it really so?

Luke searched the force. This was much easier in this state then before, now that his material existence was no longer holding him back. Yoda had told him long ago that they were more than raw matter. They all were one with the force, even in their mortal existence. That however didn´t mean however that the matter wouldn´t have some influence on their abilities in it.

Luke could not longer influence the material world like he could before, at least without incredible efforts, but he had more inside into the structure of the force, than a living being could ever have.

He could easily locate the source of the disturbances in the force. It was a hole in the reality. The sith experiments had really succeeded in what they were trying. They ripped a hole in time and space and he was on the other side, he realised.

The force revealed it all to him now. The two dark side experiments had caused a connection between two places in time, in two dimensions. The energy that was released with the death of the sith lord and his own had triggered a effect and opened a gate. And somehow his force essence was sucked on the other side. This was the past and somehow a alternate reality.

xxx

Anakin saw it again. The silhouette of the blond man, he had seen earlier. He was standing just on the other side of the room. Anakin knew somehow this man had to be connected to what had happened. He had to talk with him. If it was even possible to talk to such a being.

xxx

Luke realised that he was separated from the world he knew. He wanted to join Mara and the others, but he wasn´t sure if this was even possible in the world he was now.

Then he felt another force presence next to him.

"Skywalker?" He heard the surprised sounding voice of a young woman. "Where are we?"

Luke recognised her, it was the sith.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

He saw the woman standing before him. She was still in a imitation of the sith cloak she was wearing when she had still been alive, only a few minutes before.

It was the sith apprentice who had stabbed him earlier. Had the other jedi killed her too? Luke had to ask.

He was ready to defend himself, but he didn´t knew if they could even do to each other in their state.

"Skywalker what happened to us?" She asked again.

The sith apprentice, Luke realised, was more curious than hostile. At least she didn´t try to attack him anymore. It was strange to stand before the woman who had killed him.

"Let your mind immerse into the force. It will tell you. The force is clearer for you now then ever before. But to answer your question, we are both dead", Luke explained to her.

The sith lady looked startled for a short time. She was obviously as confused as he had been when he had landed here. After a few seconds her focus became sharp. She slowly started to complete register her situation. Luke knew, if there was a point were she would become aggressive, it would be now.

"And to say it short, your master had succeeded in his plan. A hole, for the lack of better words, was ripped in our universe and we two or at least our force presences were sucked right through it." As soon as Luke had finished his explanation, he felt a wave of anger through the force, coming from the young woman before him.

He knew that the sith had just woken up from her shocked state and realised what exactly had happened to her.

xxxxxxx

Anakin was walking through corridors of the space station. He knew he had to find the man or rather the phantom, he had seen earlier. The man had something to do with the vision he had gotten.

He had felt a new strange presence in the force since he had first seen this man. Anakin knew he had to talk to this man, whatever he was. He knew were was some sort of connection he had with this being, he felt it in the force.

Suddenly he felt something different at exactly the place where the presence of the stranger had been. It was a manifestation of the dark side, a strong one. He realised if something happened to this man, he would possibly never get his answers. It was as if another dark jedi or sith was on board.

Anakin hurried up to find the one he was looking for.

xxxxxxx

The force ghost of the sith lady in front of Luke was furious. Her anger showed itself in form of dark side powers. Luke didn´t think that he had any reason to fear her. But maybe she was a threat to others. He knew he had to find a way to calm her down. And beside that, there was something else that worried him.

How had this sith died? The jedi must have killed her, that much was for sure. But which one? As he had died Ben was the next jedi to them. His son had been coming for him, Luke remembered.

Had he succumbed to his anger and killed this woman? Had Ben touched the dark side because of him? That thought worried him far more than the thought that he had died. The thought to become one with the force wasn´t worrisome for him. The thought to lose his son however was.

The sith was a different matter. She hadn´t been ready too die, she couldn´t accept what had happened to her.

"No!" She screamed at everything and nobody. "No it can´t have ended like that."

Her anger and fury didn´t knew any limits anymore. Not at the jedi, but at her former master and his crazy ideas that brought her into this situation in the first place. It was literally burning her up and she remembered how she had died. All because a stupid mistake.

"We are one with the force", Luke stated to her. "You can do nothing to change that."

Zorrowna starred at him for several seconds. Deep down she knew that the jedi master was right, but she simply refused to give herself up already. Even if she knew it didn´t have any sense. Finally she calmed down.

"Yes I remember that I have killed you", she said to him with a mockery of a warm smile, "and now we are both here. We are what you call force ghosts right? I have heard about it", she told him questingly.

"We are", Luke admitted. "Before you eventually think about attacking me, you should know that I have no idea if we can even hurt each other in our state."

"Can you tell me how you have died?" Luke asked her.

Zorrowna was startled by that question for a moment, but then she understood.

She actually felt like laughing about this, but laughing seemed to be a physical reaction. As much as she wanted, she couldn´t bring herself to do it.

"I understand. The great jedi master is worried that his son might have come to close to the dark side and this is even more important to him than his own death."

Luke had to admit, she was absolutely right in her observation.

"You don´t have to worry", she told him sarcastically. "He killed me because I draw my lightsaber against him and attacked. I realised to late that he wasn´t after me. He only wanted to help you. It was a stupid mistake. I died for nothing", she said, this time with true sadness in her voice.

Luke nearly felt sorry for her, but this was after all the woman who had killed him in front of his son. He thought about what Ben must be going through right now. Ben was a jedi and this time he wasn´t a 14 year old boy. He would be able to deal with his death, but that didn´t make it any less painful for him.

Before they could continue their discussion, they felt someone approaching. Someone who was obviously a jedi.

"Someone is coming", she said to him. It was clear to her that the jedi master must have felt it too.

"Yes it is my father", Luke exclaimed.

"Oh I am looking out to meet such a famous person", the sith said with a smile and vanished from sight.

xxx

Anakin had reached the part of the station where he had sensed the man. He was still there. It was still only the transparent form of something that looked like a human being. On close range, Anakin saw how old this man was. His hair was not really blond, but grey. Despite that Anakin simply knew that it had been blond at some time. The man was probably in Dooku´s age. He knew that somehow he was connected to this phantom. Anakin felt it on a deep level. That what the man said the was however unexpected for him.

"Hello father", Luke greeted him casually.

Anakin felt numb inside. Father? This man was four times his age. But somehow he knew it was true.

"What are you?" Anakin asked him incredulous.

"I am what is called a force ghost. I am a jedi master, but I was killed. When I died, I bonded my life essence to the force. This is at least a easy way to describe it", Luke explained this to Anakin.

"My name is Luke Skywalker. I am your son, where I came from." He continued.

"The dark jedi who were controlling this station had tried to open a gate to an other dimension. They have succeeded."

Luke paused for a moment and allowed Anakin to register this entire information.

"In over eighty years from now on a group of sith had tried to copy the experiment. They created a rift in time and space. A connection between my world, at a point over eighty years in the future and yours. In the moment of my death I was accidental transported here through this rift."

Anakin sat down. He didn´t know what to say, he didn´t know what to think. It took him a few minutes before he could talk again.

"So the things I have seen?" He finally brought out.

"They were my memories. Somehow transmitted to you when our force presences touched each other", Luke told him.

"It is all true? Palpatine is a sith and he is going to make me one too. And you have brought me back, thank you." Anakin smiled at Luke.

"Yes", Luke confirmed to him, "but it didn´t need to happen like that. In my world you didn´t knew what you had to face. Now you are warned."

"That means I need to fight Palpatine. The man was my friend for years."

"He had been manipulating you from the beginning", Luke explained to him. "Do you finally realise how great his influence on you had been?"

"Yes I finally realise this. But he was the only one who was there for me, the only one who understood my problems."

Luke looked Anakin in the eyes. "Father", he said urgently.

"You had told me once that the jedi order had many mistakes. That the had knowingly tried to remove you from all human contacts outside of the order and that they do the same thing with all other members. We both know how wrong that is. You should never think that the failure lies either alone with you or alone with the jedi order. It was the jedi who stripped every human contact from you and let you open for Palpatine´s manipulations, but you were the one who never questioned him and let him order you to do things you knew were wrong." Luke remembered how the force ghost of his father explained him this situations in the future and now he explained it to Anakin.

"In the future the jedi have changed their ways in that regard. But the entire order had been destroyed before that took place. The jedi think without any attachments that can be used against you, they remove the reason s for the jedi to fall to the dark side. The truth is however,that they also remove every reason not to fall, every motivation to stay on the light side. But they have disconnected themselves from outside influences for so long that they are blind for this simple fact." Luke explained this to him. Anakin realised that he agreed to everything Luke told him. He had also seen the most things Luke described. But till now he didn´t looked through the complex relations, Luke described so simply.

"Anakin it is possible for the order to change", Luke assured him. "Maybe they will, maybe they will not. But someone needs to tell them. That you must never think, is that you only have the choice between what the order tells you and Palpatine. You are a free being an you can make your own decisions. Don´t let anyone place you with the back to the wall."

Anakin felt like a great weight was lifted from his shoulders. Luke was right. There wasn´t simply the jedi or Palpatine and he would be foolish to think he had only the choice between them and their opinions. But what about Padme?

"Padme´s life is in danger", Anakin stated to Luke. He was waiting for his future son to offer any sort of advice.

"The things don´t need to repeat themselves like that. By that I found out in the future, the entire situation where mother died would maybe never come to place if you hadn´t turned and Palpatine hadn´t declared the empire. When things will occur different this time, she probably won´t even be in the same place anymore", Luke explained to him.

"But there is no guaranty", Anakin pointed out.

"Anakin even if there will be complications with our medical knowledge the chance of a woman dieing in childbirth are slim to none. It was a very unlikely set of developments, that let to her death in the first place and now the things will happen differently."

Anakin realised the fist time how easy it would be to help Padme if something should happen in her pregnancy, something he had till now, completely ignored in his panic. He realised that Padme would have never died in the other world if she hadn´t been on that damned volcano planet, lightyears away from competent help, if he hadn´t turned to the dark side and this hadn´t broken her spirit.

"Thank you", he said to Luke.

xxxxxxx

Obi wan was back on the bridge of their ship.

"Captain Conz we are nearly finished here. Are we ready to return to coruscant?" He asked the commander of the vessel.

"I fear we have a problem here master jedi", the man, a devaronian, one of the few who served in the republican fleet, answered him.

"We can for some reason not activate our hyperspace drive", he informed the jedi master.

"What? Do you know why?"

"No, every time we try to calculate a jump sequence, the computer is unable to get concrete data."

Both the officer and the jedi were looking for a moment out of the window to the singularity outside.

"It is possible that the black hole is somehow influencing the hyperspace", Captain Conz pointed out. "But it wasn´t like that when we arrived."

"Whatever the darksiders have done had possible a effect on the hyperspace in this system", Obi wan explained to him.

"Captain open a channel to coruscant. We will ask for help."

xxxxxxx

On coruscant

Chancellor Palpatine, who was in secret the sith lord Darth Sidious, was insecure and that was something that didn´t happened very often. He felt that something had severed his connection to Anakin Skywalker. Somehow he had lost his hold over the young jedi. But Skywalker was a key element to his plans. Even worse, he felt the force disturbed in the entire sector Anakin and Kenobi were now.

He had already prepared the plan to use Grievous to kidnap him from coruscant. On one hand this would give him the chance to manipulate Skywalker even more and to sent him and Dooku against each other. Only one would survive and become his apprentice, the stronger one, Anakin without a doubt.

Even more important. The kidnapping would allow him to escape his jedi pursuers here on coruscant. The jedi knew now that Darth Sidious existed. Skywalker and Kenobi had been searching for him before they were sent to deal with this rouge Scon and Mace Windu was hunting for him here on coruscant.

But now all this was in question. It was unclear when Skywalker would be back, but he could not withdraw the kidnapping plot any longer if he wanted to avoid Windu. He would had to adapt his plans, maybe even change them completely.

His advisor Mass Ameda was entering the room. "You wanted to see me your excellence?" The man asked.

"Make a contact to governor Tarkin", Palpatine ordered. "We have to inform him about possible changes in our plans."

xxxxxxx

Anakin remembered something else.

"Luke before I arrived here I sensed a presence in the dark side very close to you", he asked.

"Beside me someone else was transferred here too. A sith apprentice who was killed shortly after me. But I don´t think this is a reason to worry", Luke informed him.

Anakin felt like he was getting cold inside. "A sith", he called out.

"And you think that is no reason to worry?"

"Anakin, she is in the same state as me. We must both make the greatest efforts to influence even the slightest thinks in the material world. As far as I know about sith ghosts, she should be unable to leave this place without help. She is only a minimal threat", Luke assured him.

"Good if you say so." Anakin wasn´t so sure but his feelings told him to trust Luke.

Next to them the figure of a young woman appeared. She had was middle sized, had dark hair and light skin and seemed to be I the same state as Luke. Zorrowna smiled at the two jedi.

"Anakin Skywalker. It is a honour to meet such a legend", she said with light sarcasm.

"I wish I could say the same thing", Anakin answered her.

"I will watch her", Luke told him. "You have a far greater problem right now."

"And what?" Anakin wanted to know.

"Like I said. The darksiders had ripped a hole into this universe and it is widening. I can feel now how it is breaking open more and more. It is already influencing time and space in this entire sector. If it continues like that, it could devastate this entire part of space."

Anakin was more than shocked at what he had just heard. Even the sith woman looked frightened.

"I hope there is still time to stop it", Luke told him. "You should however warn Obi wan about this."

Anakin nodded.

"And you think there is a chance to stop it?" Anakin asked.

"Yes", Luke said. "I will explain it to you later. First warn Obi wan. Then I will talk to both of you and your padawan."

"Good. If you think you can deal with her." He pointed at Zorrowna and then turned around and walked off.

Luke and the ghost of the woman looked at each other.

"How do you think we should we continue from here on?" Zorrowna asked him slightly uneasy. In fact she was insecure how the jedi master would react. Actually she feared his power, even in this state. But she wouldn´t admit this. She wouldn´t show any weakness.

"I have no interest to fight you jedi. It wouldn´t make any sense. We are all in danger. Here. In our situation we should cooperate, at least for now", she pointed out.

"I think in the same way", Luke answered her, "and I think I have a idea how we can stop this."

"Good. I am Darth Zorrowna", she introduced herself, "as you can think, I already know who you are."

Yes, she thought. If anybody she knew could solve this problem it was Skywalker. Maybe they could also find a way back into their world. And maybe she could also find a way back to life. Anyway with Skywalker she had far better chance then without him.

So they would cooperate, at least for now.

xxxxxxx

Obi wan was communicating with master Yoda on coruscant. Before him stood a life sized hologram of the small jedi master.

"I understand. Disturbing that is", Yoda said to him. "Trapped in this star system you say you are."

"We don´t know if and when we could return to coruscant on our own", Obi wan admitted.

"Help we will send you", Yoda assured his fellow jedi master.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Anakin was on his way to find Obi wan. After a clone had told him, the jedi master was back on board of the frigate that brought them into this system. He had no longer a doubt that the things the mysterious being, his son, had told him were the truth. That meant many things he had believed in his life were false. Everything from Palpatine.

Even more important were Luke´s warnings about the experiments, that had happened and will happen on this station. And their had to talk with Obi wan about all of this. About everything he had heard from Luke. Even if it meant in the long run that he had to tell him about Padme and the marriage. If he thought about it now, maybe this wasn´t even such a bad idea.

Now without Palpatine´s influence in his mind to increase his paranoia, Anakin could see the situation much more clear. The worst thing they could truly do was expel him from the jedi order. And would that be really so bad? Then he could life with Padme without hiding and they could be a family.

The truth was he had never truly chosen to be a jedi. Nobody probably did.

That means he didn´t made the decision between the life of a jedi or another, comparable one, his was between the life as jedi or slavery.

What kind of a choice is that? No. The life of a jedi was never his. Maybe he would soon talk to Obi wan soon not only about the things Luke told him.

xxxxxxx

In the other world, 80 years in the future, Ben and Valin were standing side by side before one of the windows of their ship. They were watching the black hole, that was hanging over the ship and the station. But they were not only watching with their eyes, also with the force. They were able to feel the danger, that was going out from, not only the singularity, but this entire region of space.

"It doesn´t look good", Ben said to the other jedi.

"We should get further away from it", Valin pointed out.

"But we would still have no idea, what to do about this. We have to find out what exactly is happening here", Ben remarked.

"Goodbye father", He said with a look on the space station.

Their transport ship was trying to fly to a safe distance from the station.

"Valin", Ben suggested, "we should contact coruscant at inform the council about how our mission went."

A few minutes later Valin told him something that he had actually already feared.

"We can not make any contact with the council or with anybody else as it seems. I looks as if our communications are completely dead."

xxxxxxx

Anakin had found Obi wan. The jedi master had just finished his conversation with Yoda. So he approached him.

"Obi wan. I´ve got to talk to you."

"Have the clone troopers found something Anakin?" He wanted to know.

"No. That isn´t it. Actually I have found something." Anakin started to explain the situation.

Obi wan could feel a amount of unrest in him. It was obviously that his former padawan wanted to talk to him about something Important.

"What is it Anakin?"

"It is actually a long story. I have much to tell you. First you should know something. I had a vision about the future. One like I never had it before." Anakin had decided to begin with this part of his explanation.

Obi wan knew that Anakin sometimes saw the future. In the past he had had several times prophetic dreams. This dreams nearly always turned out to be true. They had however the effect to distract him from his current duty.

"Has this vision something to do with the situation in this sector?" The jedi master wanted to know. He was convinced, whatever Anakin saw, was important, but they had more urgent matters at hand right now. So if it wasn´t about the current situation, it had to wait.

"No master. Not the vision directly. But I later got confirmation about the things I have seen and what I have seen about the future involves this too", the younger jedi started to explain.

"Anakin", Obi wan pointed out, "as a jedi you should know to concentrate on the things in here and now and not neglect it in favour of things that might happen in the future." As soon as he had spoken this words, he regretted it. Obi wan remembered the last vision his padawan had. Anakin had foreseen the death of his mother on Tatooine. But Obi wan had dismissed the dreams. He had told him to keep his mind in the present and stay at the mission, like a jedi should. That had been a mistake.

While Anakin had been on his duty to guard senator Amidala, his mother had been kidnapped by tusken raiders and tortured to death. Anakin twisted his order and went to tatooine. Ironically with Padme along with him so that he didn´t truly defied it.

He came to late. All that he could do was seeing his mother die.

Obi wan felt terrible about it. He didn´t hear about what had happened until later. After the battle of Geonosis and the start of the war. He knew it was his fault. If he had taken Anakin serious in the first place, she could still be alive. He always wanted to tell him how sorry he was. But he never knew how.

He didn´t need to wait long for Anakin´s reaction.

"Don´t tell me anything about the things I should concentrate on Obi wan. You have no right to do this. Do you remember the last time I had a force vision? I told you that my mother was in danger and what have you done? You told me to ignore it and she died. So don´t tell me how to deal with the force", Anakin said to him in a angry tone.

This words hit Obi wan very deep, but he knew his friend was right.

"Okay Anakin." That was all he could still say.

"As I said Obi wan, I have confirmation from another source for what I have seen", Anakin explained to him. "I will tell you everything."

And Obi wan listened.

xxxxxxx

Darth Zorrowna was thinking about her situation and about the future as a whole. Even if Skywalker´s plan would work, they would still be immaterial force ghosts in their world. Skywalker, a old man who had lost his wife 20 years ago and had already done everything you could imagine, was maybe willing to accept this fate, but not her. She was a young woman. For her was still much to do. She was simply not willing to be dead. Especially not like this, so senseless.

What could she do? She could clone herself, create a new, identical, body which she can use. In that way she could come back to life, maybe even more then once. Through this, she could become incredible powerful.

She knew her original body had been disintegrated, but there were still cells and blood probes of her left in their world. The medic droids on their version of this station had taken some of her. All what she needed was someone who would do the work for her and clone her. There were enough people who would do it in exchange for power, knowledge or money. It wasn´t completely easy, but it would be possible.

But what was if they would be stuck here forever? It would be over 50 years till a Kaley would be even be born in this world. How should she get her body back? Possessing someone else? She didn´t feel well about the idea. Not because of moral reasons. She was willing to do absolutely everything what was necessary to reach her aim. To overtake the body of another person, the original personality had to be either completely submerged or destroyed. What she honestly feared was that her own mind could receive serious damage if she actually tried that.

Her´s and Luke Skywalker´s appearance in this past, had already changed many things. Now that Anakin Skywalker knew the future, it was unlikely that he would ever become Darth Vader. That meant the rise of the empire and the extinction of the jedi would possible never happen and with that it was questionable if she would ever be born in this universe.

When Skywalker was right, then this was a sort of parallel universe and nothing that would change here would have any effect on their world. But what if Skywalker was wrong. What if they returned to the future and everything had changed? And she would have never existed? She could be trapped in this existence forever or worse.

Perhaps she should try as long as she was here, to influence a few things by herself, to make sure they were developing as much in her favour as possible.

Should she try to contact Palpatine? Or Dooku? Would they be willing to assist her or would they view her as a rival and try to destroy her? How should she even reach them?

She would of course work with Skywalker to realise his plan. For now this was all she could do. Beside that, she would look for possibilities to come to come back to life or set things in this time in her interests. She would get along and wait for her chance.

xxxxxxx

Jedi temple on coruscant

A small group of jedi was standing in the entrance hall of the temple. It had been decided to send another jedi team, together with a star destroyer, to assist Kenobi and Skywalker. Through the mysterious activities of Scon and his group an entire space sector was cut off from the outside world and the effect seemed to become worse. The communications with more and more star systems became disturbed and were lost sooner or later.

This group consisted of a council member, Shaak Ti, two other jedi masters and a padawan. The two other masters were Roan Shryne, a human man and Bol Chatak, a female Zabrak. With them was Chatak´s padawan Olee Starstone, a young human woman. This three should have originally be sent to Murkhana to assist the troops in the outer rim sieges. But as this crisis came up, they were sent to assist Skywalker´s and Kenobi´s team in the Crseih system instead.

"Informed about the situation you are", Yoda stated in his eccentric speech pattern.

"Yes master Yoda. We will start as soon as all of us are ready", Shaak Ti answered him.

"Dangerous it is. Even more dangerous the future will be master Ti. Feel it I can", the old jedi master said quietly.

"Stopping whatever is happening there with Skywalker and Kenobi you must. Here the war and the search for the sith lord we have to continue without you. Threats from all sides there are", Yoda informed the group.

"We all have to go to our missions now masters and padawan. May the force be with you." As they were dismissed by Yoda, the small group of jedi went to the shuttle, that would bring them to their ship.

Shaak Ti looked at her team mates. Shryne was a experienced jedi master. He was however disillusioned and bitter. During the war, he had lost two padawans and his trust in the jedi and the force was wavering. Despite that, Shryne was a very competent man.

She didn´t knew very much about Chatak, besides that she had fought in the war from the beginning, had a flawless personal file and was Olee Starstone´s master for two years. Since she took the role on advice of the council.

Starstone had originally been the padawan of the jedi archivist Jocasta Nu and a historian herself. In the war however all padawans were needed and so she became the apprentice of the warrior Chatak instead. Starstone was never a fighter by nature and by that what Shaak Ti knew more of a passive person. She always did her duty faithfully, but seldom took charge.

Strange was it that, in this case, Olee was all to eager to go to this mission. Like Shaak Ti had heard she had been the first one to want to go, as the council had first considered sending them to it. She had practically volunteered for it.

"Padawan Starstone", Shaak Ti addressed her, "could you please explain something to me? Why did you want to go to this mission so much?"

The padawan seemed a bit insecure. She thought a few moments before she answered.

"You know I am a historian master and this phenomenon seemed to be something that was never seen before", Olee hesitated again.

"That is at least one side of it", she admitted a bit more quietly. "I have a strong feeling that I should be there. The force tells me to get to this place."

Shaak Ti was quite surprised by this, but if it was what padawan Starstone thought, the force told her, she should respect that.

xxxxxxx

Anakin had just informed Obi wan about nearly everything he had found out through Luke. The jedi master was very silent for a few minutes.

"You realise that this is really a lot to take in?" He finally had found his voice back.

"I know", Anakin answered him", but believe me. It is all true."

"Palpatine is Darth Sidious", Obi wan stated, "and if things had continued like they had, he would have destroyed the jedi order and overthrew the entire republic."

"Yes. Exactly that", Anakin admitted.

"And he would manipulate you into becoming his apprentice." That fact shocked Obi wan more than everything else.

"Now that I know what I am dealing with, that will hardly happen", Anakin assured him.

"And all this you know from the ghost of a man, who will be your son in the future." The older jedi finished.

"Yes. Luke told me that a sith lord had repeated Scon´s experiment around 80 years in the future. Both have, simply said, a hole in time and space. It connects our world with Luke´s, 80 years in the future. This is the way he came here and that is the reason for the anomalies in this sector", Anakin informed him.

"That would at least be an explanation", The jedi master admitted.

"Come Obi wan," Anakin said to him, "I will bring you to Luke."

There were a few things he had not told Obi wan yet. For example his marriage to Padme and the exact way Palpatine had drawn his other self to the dark side. Or that Luke´s birth will probably come much sooner than Obi wan expected. Now, he seemed to have the impression that his son had been born years after the destruction of the order.

He hadn´t told him that he considered to leave the jedi order either. But the things he had said to him were already more than enough to take in. Anakin didn´t know how his friend would react to anything more.

He would tell him the rest then the time comes, he decided.

xxxxxxx

A number of clone troopers were still on board of the station. Their orders were to search for equipment that was eventually left and evidence what exactly the darksiders had been doing.

Three of the soldiers were now walking through the corridors of the under areas of the station.

"Have you found something?" One of the troopers was asking.

"No corporal." The answer was as expected.

"What in the galaxy had this lunatics done here?" The group leader asked, as much to himself as to the others.

"Hey. Have you heard this?" One of the soldiers asked suddenly.

"What?" The corporal wanted to know.

They all heard it now. It sounded as if someone was laughing. Then they saw it. They couldn´t say what exactly it was. It was the strangest thing they had ever seen, something they could have hardly imagined. The thing was directly before them and seemed to be looking at them with yellow eyes. All three clone troopers pointed their guns at it.

A moment later their screams were to hear trough the corridors.

xxxxxxx

Anakin and Obi wan were on their way to Luke. The force ghost of the man who would be his son had asked Anakin to bring their former master to him as soon as he had told him everything. Luke knew what was going on here or he had at least a better idea than anybody else and he had a plan to stop it.

That was it, what he had told Anakin and that was the reason he needed to talk to Obi wan now.

They had reached the corridor where Luke had spoken to the younger version of his father the first time. Anakin looked around. He wasn´t quite sure what to do.

Was there even anything to do? Were there any guideline to talk to ghosts? Anakin asked himself.

"Good. Where is he now?" Obi wan asked curious. "I am eager to meet your son."

"He will show himself when he thinks the time is right", Anakin answered him. "You know how jedi masters are." He couldn´t miss this chance for such a response.

"Very funny my former padawan."

Both jedi felt something in the force. Someone was with them. Anakin had experienced it before. For Obi wan on the other hand, it was completely new.

It felt different from a truly living creature. Very similar, but different in a subtle way.

Luke appeared before them, seemingly out of thin air. Obi wan could only stare at him.

Till now he had thought about the possibility that Anakin had been telling him a joke, even if the force confirmed his words. But now he saw it with his own eyes.

"Hello Obi wan", Luke greeted him, "I am happy to see you again."


	6. Chapter 6

I have to say that Obi wan´s character in the prequels comes over often as a really great jerk. Let´s see. He ignores Anakin´s prophetic dreams about his mother, despite that he know the abilities of his padawan. Instead he ordered him to stay, what leads to Anakin coming to late to rescue her. He could (like the rest of the jedi) in the 10 years before, not be bothered to go to tatooine and free her, what would have only be a matter of a few days. Remember, Watto may have been halfway civilised, but who knows, where he would have sold her to. Shmi could have as easily ended up with Jabba as with the Lars. All this is of course completely in line with the order, who says that all contact with the families should been cut off. Yes and that justifies leaving the woman who had willingly handed over her son, who was supposed to be the chosen one of the order, behind in slavery. And later he never said a single word about that he could have misjudged the situation. In the movies or in the EU, he never said something reassembling a apology or even admitted that he was wrong.

I interpreted his character so that he wasn´t able to express himself and talk to Anakin about it. This should be the most positive interpretation of the character in this situation.

Chapter 6

General Grievous fleet was entering the coruscant system. The defending forces were completely surprised. Nobody had anticipated this move.

Two ships of the republican fleet, a light cruiser and a dreadnaught, were destroyed before they could even raise their shields.

On board of his flagship, the invisible hand, the droid general was in contact with the man who had planned this entire attack. Grievous kneed before a hologram of a man in a dark sith cloak, Darth Sidious.

"Lord Sidious. We have reached coruscant and are ready for the siege of the planet", the general informed his mysterious supreme leader.

"Very good general. You will start now the mission to retrieve the chancellor from the surface of coruscant. It is under all circumstances necessary that you bring Palpatine to the invisible hand before the end of the day. Have you understand?" The sith lord asked.

"Yes lord Sidious", Grievous answered him.

"You can begin with the bombardment now", Sidious informed him.

"Yes my lord."

After this Sidious ended the transmission. A minute later, the separatist fleet opened fire on the planet. Coruscant´s planetary shields were able to absorb most of the assault. But a few shots were able to get through and destroy parts of the city. Laser fire devastated the areas that were hit and killed millions of living beings.

xxxxxxx

Darth Sidious observed from his secret base on the planet. This attack had been planned for months. But it could not longer be realised to the original conditions.

The plan had been to let Palpatine been kidnapped by Grievous to let the jedi lose his trail and to initiate a glorious rescue by Skywalker and Kenobi.

He would let Skywalker eliminate his current apprentice Dooku and he would have made his next step to the dark side.

Anakin Skywalker, no Darth Vader, would have become his right hand and he would have started the final phase of his plan to take over the galaxy.

But this developments had been crippled in the last moment by circumstances even he had not foreseen. Skywalker and Kenobi were cut off from the outside world, completely unable to reach coruscant in time. Grievous attack however could not longer wait or the jedi would find him. That meant his plans needed to be modified.

Something else was even more important. The influence he had over Anakin was broken. Sidious had felt it suddenly and completely unexpected. It was as if something else had invaded Skywalker´s mind and dragged him away from him.

He didn´t knew what happened with Anakin, except that the young jedi was alive, but deep in his mind, he knew that he had lost him.

What Sidious felt was anger and sadness or more likely the equivalent he felt to what normal people felt as sadness.

He had the perfect apprentice in his hands and lost him. Darth Vader would have been the future of the sith. Over time he could have grown into the most powerful force user who had ever existed. All he had needed to do was embracing the dark side completely, cutting himself from everything that held him back.

Sidious was even willing to accept that he may die through the hand of his new apprentice and that his attempts to gain immortality would have never come to be, for the chance to train the perfect and almighty sith.

But if what he felt in the force was right, this future may be lost forever and this angered Palpatine more than anything else.

In his mind however, he was already planning and looking for alternatives.

The question was only, who could replace Anakin Skywalker? Even if it was only temporary.

After he had ended his communication with Grievous, Darth Sidious was about to open another channel. The one to his current apprentice, Count Dooku, a former jedi master, the leader of the confederacy of independent systems, the man he had given the sith title Darth Tyranus. A man who needed to die.

Keeping him as his apprentice when he would take over the galaxy was like a confession that the clone wars were his doing. Officially they had been enemies the entire time. Chancellor Palpatine of the republic and the separatist leader count Dooku. To that came that he was far too old to be a suitable successor.

Alone the fact that Dooku was unable to see his own shortcomings as a apprentice in the future proofed that he was unworthy to be one. A worthy apprentice would have seen all this and not deluding himself.

"My master the campaign had so far worked exactly as planned. As you have ordered, I am on my way to the fleet to meet general Grievous", Dooku informed his master.

"Yes my friend", Sidious said to him, "you will have to play a great role in the final phase of our plan."

Yes, the role to die for the future of the sith and the galaxy. That is your part of the plan, Sidious thought silently.

xxxxxxx

Obi wan had heard the explanation two times by now, he had seem the ghost of Anakin´s future son. There was no longer a doubt left, so much was sure.

"It is all true", he stated resigned, "Palpatine is the sith and he had tricked us all. He became chancellor right before our eyes and we didn´t see it. Damn, Count Dooku told me at geonosis and I still overlooked all signs", the jedi master called out in anger.

"Obi wan. Dooku speculated about the fact that you had no reason to trust him. He had joined the dark side and you knew it. The only reason he told you this was to manipulate you", Anakin pointed out to him.

"Yes. It is still a shame that we weren´t able to realise this", Obi wan answered. Ultimately, he knew that Anakin was right. Dooku made him blind with seeing eyes.

There was still something else that Anakin wanted to tell him. The fact that he wanted to leave the jedi order. He had made his decision. With the end of the war, his time as a jedi would be over too. All he needed to do now was telling this to his former master. The only question was how he would react. Obi wan had trained Anakin. They had spend a good part of their lifes together and now Anakin was about to give all this up.

"Obi wan", Anakin started, "there is something else I have to tell you."

"What is it Anakin."

"I have made a decision Obi wan", he said. "When the war is over, I will leave the jedi order."

Obi wan had heard this declaration, coming from the jedi he had trained. For a moment he didn´t knew what to say. He and Anakin had trained, fought and lived with each other for nearly 13 years by now. Anakin was one of the most recognised and respected jedi of the order, even if he was often criticized by the council. He was also one of the most powerful. It was hard to believe that Anakin would simply threw that all away.

"Anakin. I don´t know what I should say." He hesitated for a moment. "You are one of the most important jedi. The galaxy needs you."

"The galaxy only needs me as long as the sith are around. I am the chosen one, remember. That is my purpose, to stop them and bring the force back into balance. By the way, it is no secret that the council never trusted me and in honesty, I don´t trust them either. They are so stuck up in their own dogmas that they don´t longer see the galaxy right before their eyes. So I should do all of us a favour and leave", Anakin answered him.

"That isn´t true Anakin", Obi wan called out. "You are a great jedi. A greater one when me. Even without the sith, there is still much that you can do, that you have to do. I know you have problems with the council, but that is no reason to simply leave. How can you just give up?"

In fact it was more for the jedi master than a member who wanted to leave the order. He thought of Anakin as a friend and a brother and now this close friend was planning to leave him.

"I am not giving up Obi wan, I am choosing a different life. One that is probably far better for me. I don´t longer want this crap Obi wan, I don´t longer want to be told that I can´t form attachments, that I can´t come close to anybody. All that in the name of a idiotic doctrine, that never even worked out in real life", Anakin explained to him loudly.

"Anakin, I can not believe you. You are one of the greatest jedi in the galaxy and you are throwing it all away only out of personal needs."

How can you simply leave me? That was it what Obi wan actually wanted to say. But instead he told him different things.

"The order may be not perfect, but it is still an important part of your life. You are choosing your own feelings above the jedi and the interests of the entire galaxy and now you are throwing it all away. Anakin. You have chosen to be a jedi, you have a duty to fulfill. The order has raised you and now you are turning you back to it. How can you simply leave after all the order had done for you?"

That was exactly the wrong thing to say. Anakin felt the anger coming up in him.

"Done for me?" He asked in a sniding tone.

"Done for me?" Anakin realised that he was yelling now.

"What exactly has the order ever done for me? They raised me? Yes. Because they had take me from my mother when I was 9 years old and that was old by their standards. She was a slave Obi wan, she had no other damn choice than to give me up or I would have stayed a slave too.

And after she had handed over her only child, nobody in this great order had ever lifted a single finger to help her, despite everybody knew her situation." Anakin pointed out angrily.

"If he had been alive, Qui gon would…", Obi wan said weakly and sad.

"Yes. If he had survived, Qui gon would. And what is everybody else excuse? Anakin screamed at him.

"What is yours?" He wanted to know. "I have told you about my dreams, I have told you I saw her dieing. You knew about my force powers and you still did nothing. You ordered me to stay at my mission and I listened to you. God, if I hadn´t done what you said, I would have come in time to safe her."

Obi wan felt as if someone had stabbed him in the hearth at this words.

"And you know something? This doesn´t even matters." Anakin continued. "What about the ten years before? You or any other jedi could have always went to tatooine and get her away from Watto or whoever else had bought her. It would have only been a matter of a few days. But none of you could ever be bothered to do it.

For 10 years Obi wan, ten damn years", he said angrily.

Obi wan looked down. He knew he was defeated

.

"You say I have chosen to be a jedi, really? Then was that? As I became so dependent on the order that I couldn´t decide differently? Like they do it with all the younglings?" Anakin asked him.

"Think about it. You are separated by your family as a child, who give you up because they simply have no other choice, people who are on the border of society, whose lives are in danger and similar situations. And then you life in the temple and by the rules of the jedi till you are adult. And then, when you don´t know another life as that of a jedi, then they give you a choice if you want to stay or leave. It is a joke Obi wan. What kind of a choice is that?" Anakin explained to him.

"But the order wants everybody, everybody, to think that it was truly their choice to become jedi. They told them again and again that it was their decision. But it never was. That is exactly the way they do it." His anger overcame him more and more.

"That is the reason they never tried to help my mother and that is the reason they cut off the contact of all other younglings to their families. They knowingly kept me away from my mother and that made it impossible for me to help her, right Obi wan?" Anakin yelled at him.

He was draining here on the knowledge, he got from Luke and his own older self, his knowledge, his conclusions about the order and his life. But he didn´t have the calmness, the control and the acceptance, his old self had, so he couldn´t control the anger.

"Because the jedi shouldn´t form attachments, right? Or better because the order wants to have alone the entire control over them. Nobody should have control over them besides the order. That was it, right Obi wan? The order kept me away from my mother on purpose, so that they alone could influence me", he asked Obi wan full of hate, "no matter if a few people have do die for it. Am I right Obi wan?" Anakin sneered.

This hypocratic and manipulative order didn´t deserve to exist. Anakin knew this.

The jedi master could only stare at his friend. He started to feel the dark side in Anakin.

xxx

Luke felt that his father was finally facing everything he had seen about the future, that and the consequences of Palpatine´s year long manipulations. He gave him emotional support through the force. But in the end the final decision, he knew, this was something Anakin had to make alone.

Obi wan was horryfied. He couldn´t believe that Anakin could fall to the dark side and especially not like that so suddenly and without any warning. But was it really suddenly or coming a long way? Had he simply not realised it?

Anakin realised that his anger was slowly overcoming him more and more and he also saw the state his former master was in. This was it what created Vader, this hidden hate that was eating on him the entire time. That was it, what Palpatine had used to reform him in the way of the dark side. If he followed the thoughts he had now to their end, he would be lost. For a short moment, a few seconds during his elease of anger, Anakin knew, he had already been Vader.

But how could he free himself from them? How had his older self done it.

Irony he thought. Anakin knew that the lies, Palpatine had told him, weren´t the worst thing. It were the truths, that he had instrumentalist for his purposes.

Free yourself from the hate. He heard Luke´s words from another time.

But how? The order wouldn´t accept his marriage or his way of life.

"What others think of you is not important father. You don´t have to proof anything to them and you don´t have to solve every problem alone. The jedi order has problems, but they are theirs. You don´t need to carry the entire galaxy on your shoulders, you don´t need to be a jedi if you don´t want to and you don´t have to apologize to anybody for the way you live your life", Luke´s mental voice told him.

Anakin realised that his son was right. He didn´t need the order to accept his way or to accept everything they said. For his entire life, he had lived with the need to proof something.

"Calm down", Luke continued, "try to distance yourself from the jedi. See them with their mistakes and try not to judge them for it. Remember, you had been wrong too."

Luke remembered what his father had told him. How he overcame his own resentment. No evidence who was better, no admitting of failure, just forgiveness, for them and himself.

Obi wan watched in astonishment as the dark side left Anakin, just as it came up, from one moment to the other. His friend was standing there, just like he was before.

He could hardly believe it. Anakin had practically fallen to the dark side before his eyes and come back. He tried to calm down himself.

"Obi wan my friend", Anakin said to him, "I promise you it is not you, I want to leave or Ahsoka or anybody else. It is just all this I want to leave behind."

"I am sorry, I didn´t want to say those things to you", he apologized.

"No", Obi wan told him. "In many things you were right. About the order and you. You gave me much to think about."

"Good. But never tell me again that I chose to be a jedi. Because I never did", Anakin replied.

"I know", Obi wan told him.

Luke knew his father, this version like the other, had now overcome the dark side completely.

xxxxxxx

General Grievous brought the chancellor of the republic on board of the invisible hand. Palpatine´s hands were shackled and he was surrounded by droids.

Grievous led him directly in front of count Dooku. The separatist leader had arrived a short time ago.

"That was very good work general", the count announced casually. "Now where we have he chancellor in our hand, we will leave this star system and bring him to a safe place. Give the order to the fleet general", he told Grievous.

Less than a minute later the Invisible Hand jumped out of the coruscant system, followed by the entire separatist fleet.

"Leave us alone.", Count Dooku ordered Grievous and the others in the room.

As he had said this, the general bowed to him shortly and left. The droids followed him. In the moment they were gone, Dooku went to the knees before the shackled man.

"Welcome my master."

"Darth Tyranus. As I have told you, our plans have been modified."

Palpatine felt a slight discomfort in the man before him. Caused by the sudden and unexpected changes, Palpatine knew. Dooku of course didn´t let take influence on him and pushed it in the back of his mind.

"But there is no reason to worry my friend. As I said, your role in all this is still the same." Palpatine smiled.

xxxxxxx

A group of clones were standing around the burned remains of that were once their comrades. One of the teams that were ordered to search the station didn´t returned.

"Have you found something?" A trooper with the insignia of a captain asked the others.

"No sir. We don´t know what have done this. It looks as if the corpses were burned from inside out", a soldier who was kneeling beside the remains answered.

Next to the soldiers were two other beings, but the clones couldn´t see or somehow recognise them.

"I was right", Luke Skywalker said, "he is here."

"Why don´t we start with you plan now?" Zorrowna asked him.

"I am not sure if we are strong enough. Especially since we are both unused to this state of being. I think if we can remove the reason for the rift in the reality, we can return home. But we need to be sure that we can do it. The jedi temple will send help for father and Obi wan. We should wait till they are here", Luke explained.

"Great, more jedi", Zorrowna said sarcastically.


	7. Chapter 7

I haven´t updated this story for a few months now. As I have stated in a review, I have tried to find a beta reader. In that time, I have overworked the entire story and rewritten many parts of it. This had of course cost some time. I hope this story is now better than before.

A reviewer had remarked that Anakin had actually wanted to be a jedi as he was a child, to free the slaves on tatooine. This is technically correct and it is good that he pointed that out.

As Anakin said this, he was in an argument with Obi wan and had come close to the dark side. Whatever he said there doesn´t need to be 100% correct.

In this chapter he will already be willing to relativate much of his earlier statements. It was however good from this reviewer to remind me of this fact. So I will actually address this at one point.

Anakin´s remark that he had never chosen to be a jedi had in the end very little to do with the question if he really didn´t chose it. It was more a way to express Anakin´s dissatisfaction with his situation and his personal distrust of the order.

Chapter 7

Senator Bail Organa was attending a emergency meeting of the galactic senate. The day before, chancellor Palpatine had been kidnapped and they were discussing how to keep the state working in his absence.

It was currently senator Mon Mothma, a red haired woman from the planet chandrila, speaking. She and Bail had been allies for some time now. Beside the obvious threat that the kidnapping of the chancellor was for the republic, this two and some other senators also saw it as a chance. Organa, Mothma, their friend senator Amidala and several others were members of the group of senators, who signed the declaration of the 2.000. It was the aim of this group to defend the principles of the republic bring it back to the form it was in before things got out of control, before Palpatine concentrated more and more power in his person.

Mothma reminded everybody of the importance of the democratic process and the danger the republic faced right now. By that chance, she also suggested that it had maybe not been wise to delegate nearly the entire power of the ruling body of the state to one person, chancellor Palpatine, so that it was now, after his disappearance, barely able to work. It was a subtle way to attack Palpatine´s position without going against his person directly. The chancellor had much back-hold in the senate, even in his absence.

"The dimension of this crisis should show us all, that a healthy government can not work, if it is depending of a single person. A person that, even then none of us want this, is still vulnerable to misfortune or attacks", she declared to the senate.

`A good move Mon´ Organa thought. She was pointing to the mis-developments in the government without directly criticising Palpatine. The chancellor was popular and powerful and every word against him would automatically turn many opinions against them.

Bail realised that the most senators were applauding to Mothma, some of them, namely the ones who are said to be close allies and friends of Palpatine, however were not.

His look fell on senator Amidala, Padme. She was of course on their site, but she seemed to be unconcentrated and somewhat distracted for the entire day. Not that she let anyone notice that. For everybody who wasn´t a close friend, she would look as always. But Bail knew her good.

"We should take now action to make sure that our chancellor comes back to us save," the red haired senator continued her speech, "and make sure that such a tragedy, with such damaging consequences, can never repeat itself."

In the moment she had ended whose words, a explosion ripped through the senate hall. A bomb. That was the last, Bail could thing of before smoke and dust made it impossible for him to see.

Crseih system, a half hour earlier

Anakin was in thoughts. He remembered the words he had said to Obi wan. The most of it, he had not meant. He had been sad, angry and confused. But at least he didn´t feel that glowing anger anymore. This, he understood now, had been eaten at him for three years and Palpatine had done his best to keep it going on.

It even had a name, Vader. Vader had existed in him for three years, always there, a creation of fear, hate, grieve and desperation. Since that fateful night of tatooine.

But now the dark side was gone. He felt able to think free again. Liberated from both sith lords that were influencing him, the one at the outside and the one in his own mind.

There was a time, when he actually wanted to be a jedi, he remembered. He dreamed about coming back to tatooine and freeing all the slaves.

Yes and how had that worked out? He asked himself.

During his training, he had never been allowed to come even close to his old homeworld. And then it was too late. The most of his ideals died with his mother. From then on, he was only living for Padme. She was the only thing that kept him intact. Without her, he would have probably gone to the dark side years earlier.

If he would lose her, he would have lost himself. Out of fear for her, he would have gone to Palpatine or more likely Palpatine would have come to him.

He realised how close he came to becoming the monster he would have been in another life.

Yes a long time ago he wanted to be a jedi. But after he became one, it was never what he had hoped it to be. This was not what he wanted.

He had wanted to become a jedi to free the slaves, not to be restricted from tatooine. He had wanted to protect other, not to wage a war for a corrupt government.

He had wanted to help others, not to let them down.

Yes, he was a jedi, but not the one he had wanted to be, by far not.

Anakin had made his decision. Somehow he also understood why Obi wan had reacted like that. It was a hard time for the jedi master, as it was for him.

After all we have found out today, isn´t it understandable that we had both overreacted?

Anakin knew he himself had overdone it too. Some of the things he had said to him were exaggerated and a few were simply not true, some of them at least.

He would talk to him again later.

xxxxxxx

Obi wan was confused. It was all just too much. First this crazy story Anakin told him. A story that turned out to be true and now he was planning to leave the order. At first he had been shocked. The thought that the jedi, he had trained would just give it all up was hard to grasp, at first.

In truth he understood Anakin´s reasons all too well. Actually more than he liked to.

Anakin didn´t make the choice to become a jedi, nobody did. Like Obi wan himself never had made the choice. Like all the other padawans. They all were pressed into this role from the beginning. Obi wan could easily guess one of Anakin´s motivations. He wasn´t blind.

It was obvious between him and senator Amidala, Padme.

Years ago it had been similar with him and knight Siri Tachi.

They had been in love, but they decided to give it up because of their responsibilities as jedi. Because they placed the interests of others before their own or at least they thought so.

Who exactly had they helped? A order that, as he realised now, had become corrupted? A state that had been corrupt all along?

He didn´t know. They had given the live they could have up and for what?

Siri had been killed a few years later.

They had given it all up for nothing. And afterwards he had gone and played the exemplary jedi master before his apprentice for years, always going exactly by the rules. Only because he didn´t want to see it all. By the force he was a hypocrite, he thought silently.

Obi wan remembered the things he had said to Anakin. He regretted all of it now.

"Obi wan", he heard Anakin´s voice calling him. As he turned around, he saw his friend standing a few metres from him in the corridor.

"I feel that you are troubled master" the other said to him.

"It´s okay Anakin", he simply replied.

"I know that this is not the case. I came because I was worried for you", Anakin explained to him.

Obi wan felt suddenly ashamed that Anakin had surprised him in such a stage.

"I had to deal with a lot Anakin. First your story about your son from the future and that the chancellor is a sith and then you tell me in my face that you plan to leave the order. I think I am bound to react a bit irrational."

"Of course master. Your reaction is completely understandable. Actually, you should have seen the things as they really are a long time ago."

"I guess you are right Anakin. You were right about many things anyway."

"You don´t have to block up your feelings Obi wan. There is nothing bad about your anger. Actually it is a very good thing."

Anakin smiled at him..

"What are saying", Obi wan asked confused. He didn´t understand how Anakin could say this.

"I know your feelings master. You always held yourself back, always bury your feelings, your frustration. Always accepting everything what happened to you. While inside it hurts more and more.

You should accept your feelings like I did. Accept that the jedi were lying to you your entire life."

"What, no. You said yourself, they are only flawed, they don´t know any better." Obi wan was beginning to get a bad feeling. Something was wrong.

"The jedi used you, like they do with everyone else. I really thought you could see through their deceptions by now. But I guess I have misjudged you."

Obi wan looked at the form of his former pupil. Finally he understood.

"You aren´t Anakin", Obi wan told the being before him, "you are him."

Anakin´s double began to laugh. "I see, so there is no need to pretend anymore", his voice had changed now. It was not longer resembling Anakin´s.

"Anyway, I may not be Anakin Skywalker, but that doesn´t make what I have told you any less true. Don´t you realise that I am doing this for you, to open your eyes, to show you the way."

The being hesitated for a moment. He was searching the force.

"Yes, I feel it in you, anger, confusion, loneliness, bitterness, held back and lurking in the underground for years. Not enough to be useful for me yet, but I have my ways."

Obi wan heard with growing horror what the being, who seemed to be his friend was telling him. He realised that the shape of the man before him began to grew more and more hazy. Finally Anakin´s form completely disintegrated, replaced by something that looked like a shadow, like a black hole in the universe.

"What are you?" Obi wan asked.

"I am the one who will show you the true powers of the force", the creature told him, "I am the one who will recreate you and free your mind from their boundaries."

The attack came before Obi wan had a chance to counter it. Even then, he doubted he could have. He went to his knees, he knew that he as starting to loose conscience. It was an assault like he had never seen it before. This being was throwing pure dark side energy at him.

Suddenly the attack stopped. Obi wan knew that he had lost all his strength. Then everything around him went black.

xxxxxxx

The ship with the other jedi team had arrived. Anakin and Ahsoka were waiting in the shuttle hangar of the station for them.

The padawan had to admit that she was worried. About the things that were happening on this station, but also about her master. She hadn´t really seen much of Anakin in the last time and if she did, he was distressed and distracted.

A few clone troopers were killed by something they weren´t able to identify. But Anakin had already been in this stage before that happened. There was something going on, that she didn´t knew about.

Anakin were sensing her feelings in that matter too. He had been thinking for some time how to tell her all that happened. At least it would be easier than to tell Obi wan.

"Master, I know I am only a Padawan", she said those words with hidden or more likely obvious sarcasm, "but if something had happened, I would really like to know what is going on."

"I will explain everything to you, then we have welcomed the others", he assured her.

The other jedi had arrived. Anakin greeted the jedi master Roan Shryne, who was the first to come out of the shuttle. He didn´t feel completely well about this. It was a uneasiness he couldn´t shake off.

Somewhere, in the back of his mind he remembered that he had killed the other man as Darth Vader. It was one of his more prominent memories from the other life. During the attack on Kashyyyk, as his troops had bombed the planet and burned their towns down, as wookies were sent into slavery. He didn´t want to think about it.

"Master Shryne, it is good to see you", Anakin greeted him.

"Master Skywalker", Shryne answered.

"How was the travel?" Anakin asked.

Shryne´s expression became suddenly serious. "To be honest, it was more than difficult. We had problems to get the hyperspace coordinates and had to enter this system in sub-light speed."

That was exactly what Anakin feared. "That what is happening here is disturbing the entire hyperspace in this entire sector and it is getting worse. I fear until the problem is solved, you will trapped with us here too."

"We were sent to assist you here anyway. So I guess this is not that much of a disaster for us", the jedi master stated.

"Good, as it looks we will truly need your help here."

The rest of the group had left the shuttle and were now standing next to Shryne.

"Is master Obi wan not here?" Shaak Ti wanted to know.

"No master Ti. He has still something to do. He will join us soon."

Secretly Anakin wondered how Obi wan was dealing. What he had heard in the last couple of days was more than enough for anybody to process.

Obi wan should have been long here by now anyway. He wasn´t the type to stay away from his duties because of personal issues.

In either way, he needed to inform this jedi what is happening on this station and then he will probably need Luke to convince them. He hadn´t even told Ahsoka yet.

The good thing about it was that he had no intentions to tell this entire story more than another time anyway.

And then they needed to find Obi wan.

"Master", he addressed the newcomers, "there is something I need to tell you. You will probably not believe me at first, but we have to act quickly now."

"We will listen what you have to say knight Skywalker", Shaak Ti assured him.

"Good, I haven´t informed my padawan yet too, I will tell all of you together."

xxxxxxx

_Coruscant, senate hall_

Bail Organa opened his eyes. He tried to make out Mon Mothma and the other senators he knew, but his eyesight was full of smoke and dust. He heard the alarms.

Shouts and arguing was to hear in the background. Security personal and paramedics came rushing in the room.

The situation became clear to him. A bomb had exploded in the senate hall.

Had it been the separatists, terrorists or even Palpatine. Thoughts rushed through his head.

It was not the time for this. He should for now concentrade on surviving, Bail told himself.

He saw the bodies of several senators and personal lying on the floor. Many obviously dead. Some other were injured with the medical personal taking care of them.

In some distance he recognised Padme. She seemed to be relatively uninjured. One good thing in all this, he thought.

Bail didn´t know how many of his friends and allies would die today. He felt that someone helped him up. It was his security chief, Bail realised.

As he was led out of the room, he saw Mon Mothma. She was dead. As were all of her assistants. The bomb had obviously been very close to her place. She was the first victim he saw, which he knew personally.

The first friend and ally, he would loose. He swore to himself that he would find out who was responsible for this.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Palpatine sat in his improvised throne room on board of the Invisible Hand. Officially it was his prison, at least for now.

He had his robes as chancellor Palpatine, again switched against the black cloak of Darth Sidious.

By what Count Dooku had told him, his assault at the senate was a full success. With so many senators dead or injured, himself missing and the war still raging, the republic would fall into chaos.

The ideal time for him to take over as emperor. Very soon, when he has arranged how to deal with Dooku and the separatists and when he was ready to declare order 66. Then it would be over.

But right now, he had to establish contact to someone who would be going to play an important role in the next steps of his plan. Before his department from Coruscant, he had already instructed his followers to establish a connection to this group.

Before him a hologram came to live and the figure of a anzati appeared.

"Nikkos Tyris", Palpatine greeted him. "I had been looking out to finally meet you in person."

"Lord Sidious", the Anzati answered.

Nikkos Tyris was the leader of a group of renegade jedi, Count Dooku had inspired to turn to the dark side, a few years ago. They were originally only meant as a distraction for the jedi, but now he would directly use them for a special task.

The Invisible Hand was heading for the sector where Anakin Skywalker and Obi wan Kenobi had been last located. In truth, it would also be possible to complete Palpatine´s plan without Skywalker´s presence. It would even be less risky, but also less effective.

Anakin Skywalker was the most powerful possible sith apprentice in existence. But he wasn´t under his direct influence anymore for some time now. Trying to convert him despite everything that had changed, would mean a greater risk. But he was also by far the best candidate for the role.

As a sith, Palpatine was drawn to power and Skywalker was power. Bringing the so called "Chosen One" to the dark side, would be one of the greatest triumphs of the sith. He would exploit Anakin´s powers and his potential to bring the dark lords to even greater strength. This was the only point where his actions were not driven by pure calculation.

He wanted Anakin Skywalker as his apprentice and he was going to get him. Maybe it was even a weakness of his part.

He would confront Skywalker and bring him to the dark side and if he would fail, he would destroy him and remove the threat that he could be once and for all.

Palpatine, Darth Sidious knew one thing for sure, the force were calling him to the Crhsei system and if this meant the chance for an even greater victory, than this time, he was all to happy to oblige.

xxxxxxx

The group of jedi, that was currently assembled on the main bridge of the space station, didn´t exactly knew how they should react. They had just heard the most unbelievable story imaginable.

But exactly this story had been confirmed by Knight Skywalker and told by someone who was obviously a bodiless, sentient manifestation in the force. After what they had seen, they could hardly effort to not believe.

What also worried them was the fact that Obi wan was still missing. However if what they had just heard, was true, they had far more dangerous problems to deal with.

They were the three jedi masters Shaak Ti, Roan Shryne and Bol Chatak, the jedi Anakin Skywalker, the two padawan Ahsoka Tano and Olee Starstone and the mysterious being named "Luke Skywalker", who claimed to be a jedi master from the future and there the head of the jedi order.

To that came a sith apprentice from the future, who was in the same state as Luke. A fact that nobody could or wanted really got along with. The thought alone of actually working with a sith, was absurd to them. But if what they had been told was true, it justified even desperate choices.

"We still need to find Obi wan", Anakin stated.

"We have a mission to fulfill", Shaak Ti reminded him. "According to what you have told us, this is of greatest importance."

"So you suggest that we simply leave him with the being that is running around here?" Anakin asked. "As always, simply do your task and forget everything else, even our own people."

Shaak Ti was for a moment taken aback by Anakin´s statement. She didn´t want to let master Kenobi down either, but as a jedi they had to think of their duty first. Especially in this situation.

"It is good possible that we will need Obi wan anyway", Luke offered. His transparent form was standing between the other jedi in the hall. "So that we should try to find him before we get active. But careful and we won´t leave each others side."

"We will do it this way master Skywalker", Shaak Ti answered. It felt visible strange to her to use that title or even talk to this man. To her the name Skywalker belonged to a young jedi knight, not to a undead phantom master. One who was actually higher ranked in the order than her.

"Master Skywalker", she addressed him again.

"You can call me Luke if you want", he replied. "I never liked this title anyway."

"Thank you, Luke. Tell me, are you sure that this will work?"

"I am relatively sure it will. We have done something like that before. Years ago on Yavin 4, we were confronted with the ghost of a sith lord."

"And you want us to do that again?"

"Yes, but a few things are quite different here."

"A few things?"

"Yes, the last sith hadn´t absorbed the power of a dozen other force users or of a time space anomaly. So we can not be sure."

"If we can do it this time? Shaak Ti asked.

"We can not be sure how much he have changed", Luke replied.

"And do you really think we can trust our sith ally?"

"I don´t think we can exactly trust her, but she will help us with this. Especially against this enemy and we can not effort to miss her if we do this."

Olee Starstone had overheard their conversation. She couldn´t help but it reminded her of that she should actually remember.

Right after their appearance, the jedi had been confused. They were completely surprised by the fantastic tale that Anakin Skywalker had told them. Some of them were even starting to doubt his state of mind. That means until Luke appeared to them, the "ghost" of a man, who will obviously someday be Anakin´s son.

Of course that had made their shock only bigger in the end.

During that exchange, she had left the side of the other jedi for a short time. She didn´t even knew why. She had walked into an empty corridor.

_From there on she didn´t know what had happened. _

_For a moment, she remembered the figure of a woman, dark haired, young, the same transparent form as Luke Skywalker. She had the feeling that the woman reminded her of someone._

"_You have finally come to me Olee Starstone", the woman said._

_Then she reached out with her transparent hands and in the moment she touched Olee, everything became dark._

All this flashed through Olee Starstone´s mind for a moment, but a second later, she couldn´t remember anymore.

Olee Starstone joined the other jedi for their fight against the enemy. She remembered what master Skywalker had told them.

"_About 80 years in the future, probably an alternative future for you now, my world is now likely more something like a parallel universe to yours, a sith lord named Darth Iblis had repeated Scon´s ritual. In that way he had opened a gate, for the lack of better words, between our worlds. A hole in both our universes. It connects, as far as I see that, the two points in time, where the two rituals took place._

_The problem is that the hole is unstable, it continuously expends itself and becomes larger. At first it only disturbs the communications and contacts, then it interrupts the hyperspace and then it destroys the space itself. _

_The effect will widen out more and more, first over this system, then over this entire sector and then to the rest of the galaxy and it will continue until the cause of it will be removed."_

It was at this point as all of them understood how dangerous the situation truly was.

"_my world was not destroyed through the changes we have made here", master Skywalker told them. "I can still feel it on the other side of the anomaly. I want to return there."_

"_Are you sure that he is responsible for this?" Master Shryne asked Luke._

"I can feel his presence now. As Iblis had carried out the final ritual, he became the center of all the energy that was built up. With that he opened a door in another universe.

Iblis is the source of the anomaly that had caused this crisis. It was his power that ripped the hole in time and space and is still holding it open. I have killed him in the future, but that had only caused some sort of shock, a power backslash that ripped the hole wide open and had thrown all three of us through it.

To stop it, we have to destroy him and things will return to normal. At least I hope so.

xxxxxxx

Another universe, ca. 60 years after the battle of Yavin

Ben, Valin and the other jedi were now standing at the bridge of their ship and what they saw was terrifying.

They were now flying away from the space station, trying to get to a save distance.

The space station where Darth Iblis had been holding his rituals, where they had been just a few hours ago, was falling apart. It was practically collapsing into itself.

They saw how the parts of it were collapsing into something that looked like a small black hole and that seemed to have formed in the center of the space where the station had been.

And the effect of the new singularity seemed to be growing by the minutes. The jedi started to feel it even on their ship, that was thousands of miles away now.

The new black hole was constantly growing, something that should be completely impossible by the laws of physics. Through the gravitation, it was drawn closer to the other black hole, that had already been in this system, the one that the space station had been circling. In a short time, the two would merge in a single, much more massive one.

And there was no sign that it´s grow would end.

"By the force", one of the jedi called out, shocked.

Ben and Valin were still standing before the window, starring out into space.

"What we have just seen should be completely impossible", Ben stated.

"I know", the other replied, "but it had happened."

"What does the force tells you how this will continue?" Ben asked him.

Valin struggled with the answer. He knew what would happen, as terrible as it was, but it defied his sense of reality.

Finally it answered.

"It will continue to grow until it had swallowed this entire system, then this entire sector and finally this galaxy and more."

He had finally said it.

They both had felt that something like that would happen, deep down they had known, they just ´couldn´t accept it. Their minds couldn´t grasp it.

"What can we even do?" Ben asked.

All force users had an, at least limited ability of precognition. They could see shadows of the things that would happen.

But right now, if they tried to see the future of the galaxy, they could see nothing. All they could see was darkness.

Their ship was slowly reaching the borders of the system.

xxxxxxx

The group of jedi was still searching for Obi wan. They were walking through the corridors, together not alone, they were searching everything with their force powers, but they found nothing.

"We can not find him", Shaak Ti said.

"Could he have been captured? Could he be with him?" Master Shryne asked.

"Could he be dead?" Olee Starsone asked nervously.

"No, if he had died, I would have felt it", Anakin told them.

"Are you sure?" Bol Chatak asked him. "With all the dark side powers and the space anomalies?"

"I would know", Anakin repeated, but in truth, he wasn´t so sure.

He felt nervous around this people. They had left the part about him being Darth Vader out, as they told them the story. For now, only him, Obi wan and the two visitors from the future knew about this.

As Vader, he remembered, he had personally killed two of them. Bol Chatak was the first jedi he had killed after he got the metal suit. He could barely move back then.

And Roan Shryne, during his attack on Kashyyyk. At that point he barely even felt the suit anymore. He became one with the dark side and it didn´t make a difference anymore.

At one point, he remembered, he fought five jedi at once and held his own against them, they had to combine their powers into a single attack and…

No, that had never happened, he remembered. He was Anakin Skywalker, not Darth Vader. He would not fall again, not after he knew of all this.

The tranparent form of Darth Zorrowna appeared next to them.

"There you are", Shaak Ti said.

The sith had promised to help them, but had been suspiciously absence in the last hour.

"Yes, here I am. I have promised to help you and now, there you are starting your move, I am here. Do you have a problem with that, jedi?"

None of them trusted her and that probably rightly. But if master Skywalker was right, they needed her. She would help them against her former master and right now, in their situation, they needed every help they could get.

Nobody could say what she had done in the time she was absent, especially not with all the interferences in the force and they knew she wouldn´t tell them.

It was hardly possible to keep a ghost trapped anyway. Even Luke Skywalker, another ghost wasn´t able to do that.

"if Iblis has Obi wan and that is be now the best explanation", Luke told them, "we will probably find him when we find Iblis. We should go now."

"Can you tell us a bit more about what we have to expect?" Shaak Ti asked.

"He is like me and Zorrowna, but different. The ritual has has changed him, twisted his force signature. During it, he had absorbed great masses of energy, from the force users he had sacrificed and from the anomaly itself. Iblis had somehow connected himself with it.

He made himself the focus point of all this energies.

We don´t know how strong he became in the process and I am still unused to be in this form. That is why we need every help we can get."

He looked at Zorrowna.

"Iblis is now practically living from stolen energy and it seems he is craving more of it. You have felt the force around the force around this clone troopers he had killed. Their life energy was practically drawn out of them. It is possible that he became dependent on the life energy of others."

"You mean he became some sort of life energy vampire?" Ahsoka asked curious.

"Yes."

"Great", she snorted.

Luke only smiled at this.

"It is Iblis influence that is holding us here", he said to Zorrowna. "I think if his power is gone, we will be send back to our world."

"But you are not sure", she replied.

"No, I can not."

"I understand."

"We will do this", Luke told the assembled jedi, "first we create a force circle around him and we cut him off from every possible energy source, that means every living thing close to him.

Then we use the force to neutralize his powers.

I would really like to show mercy", Luke said to the others, "but like I have seen the man, he will hardly be willing to reason. He was completely insane in life and I fear he will be worse now. We will probably have no other choice than to destroy him completely.

Are you all ready?" He asked.

He was answered with a collective "yes" from the group.


	9. Ch9:Interlude: Night of the long knives

Chapter 9: Interlude

_On board of the Invisible Hand_

General Grievous quarters were exactly like the most people who had heard of him would have expected it to be.

The room was void of nearly all items the most creatures would have to live. Grievous, a cyborg had no need for eating or for sleep. So the chamber had barely any furniture. The sole exception was a large chair with mechanical components and electronic connection points for Grievous droid body.

On the walls were hanging khaleesh battle masks and other representations of the generals native culture.

General Grievous was standing before a computer console and working on the plans for the next campaigns Count Dooku had given to him. A task that would keep him occupied for some time. With the kidnapping of chancellor Palpatine and the strike against the senate, the republic would fall into turmoil, exactly like they wanted it.

Now they needed to plan out their further strategy from there on in detail, now that they knew that they knew that their plans had been successful up to this point.

Through his artificial hearing, Grievous could make them out quite easily, before they even entered the room. Someone was trespassing his quarters, without orders or authorisation. What was this? An assassination attempt? A attack by the republic?

He didn´t knew how this people came in there, but he knew he would deal with them and then with the ones who's incompetence had allowed them to come this far.

Then the door to his quarters was opened. He saw the three figures who were entering, he heart the characteristically sound of the activation of lightsabers, jedi.

As impossible as it seemed at the first look, a group of three jedi was standing inside his quarters, inside of his flag ship. Their obvious leader was an anzati, the others were a human male and a female.

Grievous activated his own lightsabers. He saw that a group of destroyer droids were entering the room to confront the jedi. At least something was working as it should here, Grievous thought.

When, to his surprise and astonishment, the droids turned around and opened fire on him. Grievous was, despite his complete surprise, able to deflect a few of the shots with his lightsabers and his armour absorbed most of the damage anyway. But alone the fact that the droids, his droids, were firing at him caught him completely off guard.

General Grievous realised that another person had entered the room. It was Count Dooku. Grievous saw that his master was casually standing next to the three jedi.

That alone should have told him what was happening, but his mind simply refused to register it.

"Count? He asked insecure.

The man raised his hand and Grievous felt the force lightning ripping through his body, frying the systems of his cybernetic parts.

Grievous went to his knees.

"Count, why?" That was all he could still ask.

"General, I fear you have simply outlived your usefulness", the man answered him.

"Master Tyriss", Dooku said to one of the jedi, "this is your first task in your work for master Sidious."

The three jedi raised their lightsabers and attacked the weakened enemy together.

Coruscant, senate district, senator Amidala´s apartment

"It is good to see that you are uninjured Padme", Bail Organa said to the woman sitting next to him.

"Thank you Bail. It is good to see that someone here cares about my well being", while Anakin is not here, she added silently.

"I fear Mon had less luck than us."

"With her we lost an important ally and a friend", Padme said.

"Yes Padme, both of this."

"Do you really think Palpatine could be involved in this?" She asked him.

"We three were the most important members of the signers of the declaration of 2000, we wanted the chancellor to give some of his emergency powers up. On the other hand I doubt that even Palpatine would go that far to bomb the senate And don´t forget if the separatists hadn´t kidnapped him, he would have been inside with us."

"What about the seperatist?"

"Yes, but they would have needed somebody at the inside for this, especially in the short time. Remember, the reason we had a meeting at this time was only because of the attack on Coruscant. That means they had only very few time to prepare."

"Or they knew that te attack was going to happen in the first place", Padme remarked.

"Yes."

"What about this mysterious sith lord the jedi has been searching for some time now? The one who should have infiltrated the senate."

"And he is in league with the separatists", Organa admitted, "That is someone who I would certainly call a suspect. But we don´t even know who he is."

In that moment Padme´s holo-projector on the other side of the room activated and a holo of Palpatine´s chief adviser Mas Amedda appeared.

"Senator Amidala", he greeted her, "and senator Organa", he saw that the man was also there, "I have to inform you about an alarming incident that had happened."

"What an incident Amedda?" Senator Organa asked.

"I fear senator Fang Zar had been assassinated about an half hour ago", Amedda said with obviously false sympathy.

Mas Amedda was one of the most loyal followers of Palpatine and Zar one of his criticizers and like Amidala and Organa one of the participants of the declaration of 2000.

"Fang Zar is dead?" Padme asked outraged.

"Yes", Amedda answered, "we don´t know much so far, but according to witnesses, it looks as if the murderer had been a jedi."

"A jedi? You mean one of Count Dooku´s followers?" Senator Organa asked.

"Who know", Amedda answered "I will contact you again when I know more. I know senator Zar´s death will be a loss for all of us", he said.

With that he ended the transmission.

"I don´t like this", Bail said.

xxxxxxx

The council of the leaders of the separatists was assembled in their conference hall on board of the Invisible Hand. Count Dooku had called them all for a meeting. They had already been awaiting this. They were waiting to be informed about the next steps in the plan Dooku and Darth Sidious had to take down the republic.

"Ah, Count Dooku", the vice king Nute Gunray greeted him, "we have already been awaiting you. We all think that it is about time that you inform us about the rest of your plan, now that we have the chancellor and that we have damaged the senat."

"Of course vice king", Count Dooku smiled at him, "that is exactly the reason that I have called for all of you."

The separatist leaders saw that three other robed figures were entering the room behind Count Dooku.

It took all of them only moments to realise who they were, especially as they took out their light sabers.

"Jedi", Nute Gunray hissed, "Count Dooku, what is the meaning of this?"

"Simply vice king. Our plan comes now into it´s finale phase and for this you are not longer necessary."

Count Dooku nodded at the three.

Without saying a word they began to cut the separatist leader down one by one. Some were pleading for mercy, other made a desperate attempt to fight back, that made of course no difference.

Nute Gunray was one of the last, pleading for his life, before the blade of one of the jedi killed him.

It all had taken less than a minute.

As it was over, another person entered the room. This one was wearing a completely black robe and had his hood drawn deep over his face.

"It is done master Sidious", Count Dooku addressed him.

"Yes lord Tyranus, good work."

"Maybe we should have kept general Grievous for a while longer. He was quite useful in the end."

"No my friend, Grievous had solved his purpose. He had become simply too much of an political obstacle for you for the part of our strategy that is coming now", Palpatine/Sidious explained to him.

"We had completely on purpose let Grievous commit the most atrocities of the clone wars, at least the most open ones. He will take the blame of the clone wars in the eyes of the public, while you will be free to reign at my side.

And for you", he addressed the three dark jedi, "I will hold my promise. As soon as you have fulfilled one last task for me, I will reveal the secrets of the sith to you.

Have the holo cameras recorded all of this?" Sidious asked Count Dooku.

"Yes master."

"Good, with that we have created proof that the jedi have been controlling the war and have now assassinated the separatist leaders. Next we will incriminated them for the kidnapping of chancellor Palpatine and the assaults on the senate.

Soon I will be ready to declare order 66."


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

The six jedi were now about to enter the main hall of the station, the same place where all this had started. Where first Scon and then Darth Iblis had been performing their experiments and had it made into the focus of all the dark side energies that had caused the time space anomaly.

They had just started to feel the dark presence in the station a short time ago. It was obvious that their enemy was trying to confront them.

Until now the ghost of the sith lord that was haunting this place seemed to have hidden himself to the greatest parts. But now he didn´t longer made the effort.

It was as if he was inviting them to come. That meant of course one thing, that he had not been ready to face them so far. But now he was ready.

Whatever he had prepared for them, the dark lord was awaiting them.

Before them lay a dark room. It was nearly impossible to see something. All what they could make out with the force was the dark presence somewhere around them.

They were walking the last steps down into the hall.

Finally they saw the silhouette of a person in a dark cloak coming out of the shadows before them. The person was standing at the end of the hall, waiting for them.

As the jedi came closer, the figure in front of them was drawing a light saber, a blue one.

Then the man before them lifted his head, they recognised him, it was Obi wan.

xxxxxxx

In the future

The ship with the jedi on board had reached a save distance to the anomaly. They had just seen the destruction of the infamous Crseih station by something hat shouldn´t even exist. A space singularity, similar to a black hole, had somehow appeared out of nowhere and swallowed the entire space station.

It had seemingly absorbed the small black hole that was already in the system and was now more massive then both of them together had been before.

And it was still growing. It was expanding exponentially, growing faster and faster with every minute.

Their ship was now waiting at the edge of thew system, outside of the destructive reach, for now. Ben Skywalker was standing before one of the ship´s windows, looking out into space. To the point where the station had been, not even one hour before. Now it was replaced by one of the most massive singularities in known space.

This anomaly, that had seemingly simply grown simply out of itself, would continue to expand till it had finally consumed the whole galaxy.

Ben knew this, he felt it in the force. He had seen te future of the world and he had seen nothing.

If he was honest, he didn´t know what to do. His father had always told him to trust in the force, but he didn´t knew if even the force had any future now.

And his father was dead.

"Like he had told you Ben, your father is always with you. Even now, when he can not contact you directly."

Ben saw how a blueish glowing, transparent figure appeared before him. A tall, red haired woman, Mara Jade Skywalker.

"Mother?" Ben asked.

"Hello Ben", she greeted him.

"I guess you are here to give me some good advice", Ben commented, half sarcastically, half happy to see her. "That is what you force ghosts do right?"

In this moment, he was glad to see his mother like never before, even when she had still been alive. But somehow, he had to admit, this jedi ghosts only showed themselves if there were real problems. With other words, alone the fact that she was here demonstrated that the situation was bad.

When what he had seen about the future would come to pass, it would probably been the greatest problems imaginable.

"Can you help me?" He asked her. "Can you tell me anything that I can do? **Is** there anything I can do?"

"There is something", she admitted,

"but you won´t like it", Mara said to him after a short pause.

The appearance of the force ghosts was a mirror of them in life. Right now, Mara´s expression came so close to that of complete uneasiness, as a ghost could get.

"What is it?" He asked her determined.

"You must bring the ship closer to the singularity", she told him.

Ben froze, he could barely believe what he had just heard.

xxxxxxx

"Obi wan?" Anakin greeted the man before him, full of surprise. They had been searching for him the entire time and had already feared that he was a prisoner of the enemy.

It was not as if he wasn´t glad to see him, but the one they were planning to see here was the sith lord and not Obi wan.

"Master Kenobi", Shaak Ti now adressed him, "we have been searching for you. Can you tell us where you have been?"

Obi wan completely ignored her.

The jedi could all feel his force signature. It was as if something had invaded and twisted it. There was something that wasn´t supposed to, something dark.

"Obi wan, something has happened to you", Anakin said to him.

"Yes, something happened", Obi wan repeated in a hollow and emotionless tone. "It is good to finally meet you face to face Darth Vader."

"Vader", Anakin replied confused as his former master called him by his sith name, that he had never worn in this lifetime.

Before anybody Obi wan had drawn his lightsaber and was attacking him.

"Master, Obi wan", Ahsoka screamed.

None of them reacted to her. Obi wan was attacking without restraint, but also without an visible emotion and Anakin had to fight back, if he wanted or not.

The jedi felt another, darker presence in the room.

It was the sith lord, it had to be. The one who had started all this.

Darth Iblis, the mysterious Luke Skywalker had called him.

The being, who had now appeared before them, looked like a black silhouette of a man, surrounded by darkness.

In opositte to the jedi ghosts, who were a blueish glowing, transparent version of their former selves, this one seemed to consist of some sort of black liquid.

Force energy in form of blue lightning was constantly sent through his body.

The jedi felt his force presence clearly now, it was impossible. His raw power in the force surpassed everything they had ever known by far, everything they even could have imagined. It was as if they weren´t facing a force user, but a aggressive force of nature.

The entire energy of all his victims, the acolytes he had sacrificed, the jedi who died fighting him and the clone troopers he had killed and the energy of the time space anomaly, he had created, all this he had absorbed and it was now flowing through his ghost form.

And they had barely even felt that monstrous force presence before, how? There was only one explanation, this Iblis was that strong that he could disquise himself power from them. Like Darth Sidious, Shaak Ti realised.

Luke Skywalker had told them that he had experience with that sort of enemies, with darksiders who had absorbed that much power that it surpassed the usually possible. He told them that he had faced enemies like that before, he told them that he had a plan. They could only hope that master Skywalker knew that he was doing.

Anakin and Obi wan were still involved in a mercy-less lighsaber duel.

The jedi saw, full of horror, the sith lords left hand or the place where his left hand should have been.

Where his under-arm should have ended in a human hand with five fingers, it instead became a half dozen of black tentacles, that were lying over the floor before him.

It were this tentacles, they saw now horrified, that were connecting him to his latest victim, Obi wan Kenobi.

The tentacles were connected to Obi wan´s arms and legs and seemed even to reach over the back of his head in his mind, connecting them through the force.

He played his marionette in this way, followed his movements, controlled whatever he saw. Obi wan was only allowed to see and think what he wanted.

The jedi saw this and didn´t know what to do.

"So much for the well planned attack", Ahsoka commented.

xxx

Luke Skywalker and the sith called Zorrowna were seeing what was happening. They did not became visible by now and were watching the events from a slightly different perspective in the force. But they knew that the creature Iblis had become was seeing them very well.

Luke recognised Iblis features as the same of the man he had fought before his death.

He had once faced a similar being before, the ghost of the sith lord Exar Kun. It had nearly been the same situation, he remembered. He was separated from his body and supporting the other jedi who were facing him.

But this time he was truly dead and that was only one of the differences.

By his own admission Kun had, at the end of the great sith war, 4.000 years ago, absorbed the entire life energy of the last survivors of the massassi race to conserve his own force essence in his sith temples.

_3980 years earlier, on the moon Yavin 4_

A man was hanging, connected to the strange machinery that once had belonged to the old sith. He was tall and had long dark hair, that was bound behind his head into a ponytail. His clotherswere, in opposite of the ancient sith, a dark grey combination, suitable for combat.

"You can begin", he said to the massassi priest, who was standing next to him in the room. At his order the priest left the room to finish the last preparations.

In the large halls of the temples, ten thousands of massassi were assembling to sacrifice their lifes for their lord.

The massassi were a warrior race, created through genetic manipulation by the ancient sith. They were engineered and raised for absolute loyalty to the dark lords, whoever was holding that position at the moment. Their last and current master was Exar Kun and now they would give their life's to bring him to immortality.

Kun had to admit that he had lost the war. His former apprentice Ulic Quel Droma had betrayed him and gave the location of his headquarters to the jedi. Their fleet had without warning appeared over Yavin.

Exar Kun knew that he had no chance to hold his base against the combined fleet of all jedi, he knew he could not flee and he would certainly not surrender.

Even if he could not win, this procedur would give him the energy to leave his body and continue to exist in a new form. In the end, he would still win.

It began.

The machinery, together with the dark side, started to draw the energy out of the massassi. Kun felt as it began to built up in himself, higher and higher. Until it became more as his fragile body could hold.

He used the technique to separate his mind from his body that he had learned, he was becoming something greater as he had been.

Until something happened. The jedi, he realised. They had felt what he was doing. No, there was no way that they knew what he was doing, Kun realised. They had only felt the giant build up on dark side energy and were now trying to stop it.

They were using their combined powers to disrupt an ongoing process that they even understood.

Like good little jedi, Kun thought full of disgust for a short moment. Whenever the dark side gets active, try to counteract it, without even understanding what was going on. Fools, he thought, he would not lose to them, he would life.

He had already separated from his body, he was immortal. They couldn´t stop the process anymore.

Then something happened. The light and dark energies reacted with each other, resulting in a giant break out of energy. A wave of fire went over the surface of the moon, consuming everything in it´s way.

xxxxxxx

Exar Kun had absorbed the life force of the massassi race, Iblis the one of dozens of force users and of time and space itself.

And as Luke had finally faced him, thousands of years later, the energy he had absorbed from the massassi had long vanished. As powerful as he was, Exar Kun had been on his own strength.

Iblis was not. He had made himself the center point of all the energies that had been made free during the rituals he had hold. Energy that was now concentrated in him and ironically that was the weakness he planned to exploit.

xxxxxxx

_Obi wan was on a volcanic planet, involved in a duel with his opponent. Sometimes, he was also thinking that he was on a space station. It didn´t matter. _

He was fighting Darth Vader, the sith who had once been his apprentice Anakin Skywalker. It was Anakin´s face, his body, but it was not Anakin.

_Anakin was dead, killed by Darth Vader and by the jedi. _

_Vader was that Anakin once had been, corrupted and consumed by the dark side, by bitterness, fear and anger._

_It had been the jedi, who had broken Anakin in the first place. It had been them who had cut off every contact with his mother, who had refused to help her as Anakin had foreseen her death. They were the ones who had open him for the dark side in the first place. That was that the voice in his mind had told him. _

_They all would pay. He would first destroy Vader and then the jedi, he knew that some of them were close, even if he couldn´t see them. The voice had told him._

_He realised that Vader/Anakin was saying something to him, but he couldn´t hear it. That was good. He wasn´t interested in anything that the monster that had once been his friend had to say._

_Obi wan would destroy him and then hunt down the jedi._

"_I have never chosen to be a jedi", Anakin had told him and he knew he was right, nobody did._

Anakin yelled at his former master, trying to bring him back to his mind, but it was senseless. He had tried to reach him with the force, but without success. Whatever was going on in his head was a nightmare and he wouldn´t wake up.

In that moment Luke and Zorrowna appeared in the room. The two ghosts were now standing a few metres beside the jediand at the opposite end of the room to Iblis.

"Ah, master Skywalker", the sith ghost greeted the newcomers, it was the first time that he had said anything, "and my apprentice is also here. As I see, you are also against me now."

"I was never on your side to begin with", Zorrowna answered sarcastically, "you would have always killed me without a second thought just like the others."

"Indeed my **former** apprentice and in fact soon your energy will also flow through me."

"What have you done to Obi wan?" Luke asked him.

The phantom was smiling now, something that was possibly more disturbing than anything else the jedi had seen so far.

"The same that I have done to my acolytes, the same that I will soon do to the world", he answered. "I have reformed him in my image."

xxxxxxx

A few thousand light-years away, in the Yavin system, the ghost of Exar Kun awakened again after he had been lying down for centuries. In a deep trance, he brought himself into, only to awake if something of notice happened.

The process that was meant to give him an eternal existence, thousands of years ago, had in fact worked. But because it had been disturbed before he had been able to absorb the entire energy, he was trapped in this place and had never been able to leave Yavin 4 by his own power. What had once been his fortress had become his prison.

Slowly, his mind was starting to erode. But he was still waiting with a inhuman patience for something, anything to happen.

Now, after centuries, he was finally feeling something interesting. The ripples that were flowing though the force like never before, the breakings in reality.

For him, there was only to wait how this would end.

Cxx

**I have taken some time for this chapter, since it was especially hard to write.**

**A few explanations:**

The term "night of the long knives" (Nacht der langen Messer) for the interlude in the last chapter is a expression for political murders and assassinations. It is commonly used for the so called "Röhm Putsch" in 1934, were Hitler used an supposed coup attempt as an excuse to get rid of several officers who became inconvenient and many political enemies. Like this had Palpatine in the last chapter assassinated several of his followers who were not longer useful.

A few chapters ago, I had an confrontation between Anakin and Obi wan regarding the death of Anakin´s mother and his relationship to the jedi.

During that Anakin mentioned at some point, after an emotional outburst, that he had never chosen to be a jedi, just like nobody else did and Obi wan had confirmed this. One reviewer had rightfully mentioned that this was incorrect and Anakin had actually wanted to become a jedi to free the slaves on his home-world. Something that Obi wan should know. Obi wan´s reaction was in fact incorrect.

This was actually the breaking point, where he started slipping and to fall under Iblis control.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

_The future_

The jedi ship was taking course closer to the anomaly.

On board sat a group of jedi with a grim expression.

"I can not believe that we are actually doing this", Valin Horn said.

Ben saw at him. He was right, under every other circumstances, what they are doing here would be considered completely insane. They were flying directly in the direction of and unstable black hole that was about to devour the entire star system.

"Right", Ben answered, "under every other circumstances, I would think in exactly the same way as you. As mother told me, I could at first not believe it. But you realise what is happening around us right? Do you really think we have still much of a choice?"

They both felt it, as every other jedi on board, even if every part of their beings told them that it was impossible.

The anomaly was growing, it became exponentially larger., something that was actually physically impossible. There was no matter for it to consume. It was as if it was eating on the fabric of time and space itself.

The black hole was already starting to rip the neighboring stars out of their galactic orbits.

Soon it would begin to absorb the mass of this stars, some of them would destabilize and end in novae, others would simply decrease in their radiation and their planets, if they had ones, would get cold. This could already happen in the next hours.

And the black hole would continue to grow. The effect would widen out to the whole galaxy, the whole universe.

They all knew it, felt it, as if the existence itself was being shattered.

Ben Skywalker was knowing it better than anybody else in this universe.

His mother had explained to him what had happened, as much as even she knew it.

In his attempt for power, the sith lord Iblis had tried to create a connection between this universe and another. But something went wrong. Iblis experiments had somehow interacted with the one of the dark jedi Scon at the same place 80 years earlier.

His actions had opened the gate to another universe, but in a different way then he wanted. A practical identical alternate reality, until up to some point in time, space and history where this other world starts to develop different from our.

A divergence point.

But the connection was not a gateway, it was a break, a unstable one that was continuously widening itself, the "anomaly". Both realities could be destroyed.

And, by what his mother had told him, father was on the other side, dead, a force ghost like her, still existing, but lost.

What they were doing now was maybe the only chance to make contact with him.

xxxxxxx

_The past _

_Outer rim sieges, the planet Acherin_

The ships of the republic were engaging a small fleet of the separatists. They were winning.

The admiral of the republic forces was standing on the bridge of his flagship and watching the battle. It was nearly too good to be true.

Nobody knew exactly what, but something had happened. The entire confederacy was falling apart. From one day to the other, there was practically no united front anymore.

The different sepatarist armies and fleets seemed to hold up only scattered and isolated resistance. There was no greater organisation or strategy anymore.

It was as if the central leadership of the separatists had suddenly vanished and all their forces were falling into disarray.

In space, the star destroyers were just encircling the last active confederation ships and finishing them off. It was clear, that they had no intention to surrender. At least this unit had obviously decided to fight to the bitter end.

Beneath them, their troops were beginning with the bombing of the separatist stronghold on the planet.

The admiral remembered that many of their bases were build very close to the cities of this world. Somebody could barely think it had been done on purpose and maybe it was, to make it impossible for the republic to take them without hitting civilians too.

He saw the fire spreading across the surface of the planet. Yes, this was really too good to be true.

xxxxxxx

_Crseih-system_

The group of jedi was still fighting the seemingly all-mighty ghost of a sith lord, something that they knew in the best case out of legends. One who had absorbed the powers of time and space itself.

Anakin Skywalker was forced to fight a lightsaber duel against a mind controlled Obi wan Kenobi. Somehow, somewhere, in the time he was missing, Iblis had taken control of him.

The other jedi wanted to assist Anakin and restrain Obi wan, but as they tried to get involved, Iblis shot force lightning at them.

Ahsoka and Bol Chatak were struck down by the onslaught of electricity and needed a few minutes to recover from the attack. The other jedi managed to avoid the assault, but were also unable to help Anakin.

They had to admit, that they were facing a enemy whose power was completely unheard for them and vastly superior to their own.

For Luke Skywalker it was different. He had already met darkside users who had been holding that kind of power.

"Iblis", he called out at the sith lord, "please, you have to stop this. Don´t you see that time and space are falling apart?"

Luke knew that trying to appeal on the sith lord´s reason was most likely senseless. The man had been completely insane in life and now, in an undead state and charged with all the dark side energies you could imagine, he could only be worse. But for the sake of everyone and everything, he had to try.

"I know that you are the one who chause the rift in time and space", Luke told him. "It is your will that keeps the connection between the universes intact. If you truly want it, you can reverse the effect."

For a moment, the sith phantom looked at him as if the things he had just said were the most absurd thing in the world.

The jedi saw that his human shape began for a few seconds to disintegrate and blur. Parts of his "body" deformed or seemed to vanish in the air around him. As if his physical manifestation was as destabilized as his mind.

"Yes, time and space are indeed falling apart, falling apart to be reformed and recreated by me. Do you see what my final gathering of power had achieved for me jedi?" Iblis exclaimed proudly.

"This is the past, before Palatine´s rise, before the empire and it´s fall and before the Yuzhaan Vong. A chance to completely rewrite the last century of history, to reform the galaxy in my image. I **know **that the universe we came from is falling apart. That is only a necessary side effect of my recreation of reality", he told the horrified audience.

"The same is happening here, it only takes longer to take effect here in the past. You will destroy all of us", Luke answered him.

"Nonsense", the sith screamed and directed force lightning at him. Being a ghost, the lightning just shot through Luke´s form without causing anything, but Iblis didn´t even seem to notice.

"The ripples in this reality are only a by product of the destruction of our old universe and of the new history I am forming", Iblis declared.

So much to the try, Luke thought.

"He is really mad, even by our standards", Zorrowna commented.

"You are the one who had been serving him the entire time", Luke replied.

"Not by choice", she answered.

Luke knew what they had to do. They had no other option left. He had already met darkside users who had been holding that kind of power and he knew their weakness. They had absorbed large sums of foreign energies instead of relying on their own.

The sith lords who had been manipulating that kind of dark side energies, were not truly controlling this powers, they were just channeling them.

As much as they wanted to pretend otherwise, the powers were not truly theirs, it were dark forces of nature that they had summoned and could only hope to send it somehow in the direction they wanted and that it would destroy their enemies, but then they were for the greatest part unable to even take any control of it anymore.

They were ultimately more transmitters for the dark side powers than their actual owners and that was their greatest weakness.

And Luke could feel that Iblis was the most extreme case of this that he had ever met.

Iblis had made himself into the central point of all the energies that had been accumulated during his experiments and time space manipulations. More than any being could truly hold or even grasp.

Luke knew that the powers that Iblis were really controlling were in fact only the top of the mountain. He could feel the endless abyss of dark side energies that were out of any boundaries and were right now ripping both universes apart. Iblis however refused to care or even accept that. He lived in the illusion that he was the master of what was happening.

What he had unleashed would destroy him too in the end, but he didn´t have the sense to see that.

"The old universe had to be destroyed so that my new one can arise", Iblis announced.

Luke knew, the safest and best and maybe the only way to defeat such a creature was to separate them from their powers.

Despite Iblis lack of real control, he was the one who had created the power, now ripping the universe apart. He was the source, he caused the break in the realities and his presence was what was still holding the rift open that was widening more and more, the growing anomaly that was threatening both universes.

With him removed the gathered dark side energies would dissipate and dissolve. Without it´s source the time space anomaly would collapse in itself.

And Luke and Zorrowna would be send back to their own world. Iblis powers were everything that was holding them here in the first place. At least Luke hoped so.

xxx

Obi wan was still fighting against Anakin. Somehow Iblis had been able to ensnare and manipulate his mind. Now, the sith lord was controlling his senses, feeding him with pictures and thoughts. Obi wan was captured in a false dream world.

Luke knew what he saw, the fight on the planet Mustafar. A picture probably taken from Luke´s own mind, after he had seen it in his father´s.

Obi wan remembered seeing the bodies of the separatist leader who Anakin, no Vader, had executed. He remembered the holo of him killing the jedi younglings in the temple. Vader had to be taken down, he knew this. Still he hesitated.

_But he knew something drove him to continue fighting. _

_Obi wan saw that Anakin was yelling something at him. He couldn´t hear what he was saying. _

_But he knew what it was. Justifying his actions, blaming him for taking Padme from him, calling the jedi traitors._

_Obi wan knew that it was hopeless. Anakin had become a sith. The boy he had trained had vanished. And he attacked more vigorously._

_Something in his mind told him to destroy Vader at every cost, something that was controlling him and laughing in the background._

Anakin was barely defending himself against Obi wan´s strikes. He could barely believe that this was happening.

Again, like in the vision he had received from Luke. He and Obi wan, involved into a deadly fight. It was like a nightmare coming true to him.

But this time it was Obi wan who had been manipulated by the sith.

It was Mustafar all over again, but this time with reversed premises.

And like the last time, Anakin was losing.

Now not because of his overconfidence, but because he refused to fight back with full force against his former master.

In opposite to Darth Vader, Anakin knew, Obi wan had not truly turned to the dark side. He was just being manipulated. And so Anakin was holding back and paying the price.

"Master, please stop this." He pleaded to Obi wan.

It was senseless, because that weren´t the words Obi wan was hearing.

Luke saw what situation his father was in. Since he and Zorrowna were force ghosts, they were not able to do anything about the physical aspect of the fight. With Obi wan however, it was different.

Luke used the force and he was concentrating on the mind of this version of his old master.

_The future_

They were in Ben´s quarters.

Ben was sitting in a jedi trance in the middle of the room. Valin could still barely believe that they were doing this.

Their ship was now very close to the black hole, dangerously close.

As Mara Jade has told them. She said that this was probably the only way to make contact with master Skywalker, who was trapped somewhere on the other side, in a parallel universe.

In a deep jedi trance she claimed and close enough to the black hole, the connection between the universes, Ben should maybe be able to reach him and help him to remove the cause for this disaster. And maybe to bring him back.

But doing this was practically suicide.

He saw Ben sitting there motionless, he could only hope that something would happen before the anomaly would destroy them all.

_The past_

The five remaining jedi were fighting a phantom.

Iblis was striking them with sith lightning and energy, but aside from blocking his attacks with their lightsabers, none of them was really able to hit their enemy back.

Only a direct attack with the force itself could actually hurt this enemy. But right now, he was more powerful than any of them individually.

At the same time, Anakin was losing more and more ground.

"_For me, the jedi are evil", Obi wan heard Vader saying._

_In some way, that made sense for Anakin, he thought. He knew his friend good enough to understand that maybe, he could truly think something like that._

_I won´t lose her like I lost my mother._

_He could remember this words from Anakin._

And how had he lost his mother? Obi wan thought.

_As a jedi padawan, Anakin had been raised in the temple and in their "intelligent" way, the jedi had cut all connections to his remaining family for ten years._

_And then Anakin had finally visions about his mother dieing, he had completely ignored him._

_It was all his fault, Obi wan knew and the thought tortured him. He heard the insane laughter somewhere in the backside of his mind._

Iblis was laughing about Anakin´s inept attempts to defend himself.

"Obi wan, stop this", Anakin screamed.

"It ends now my master", Obi wan heard him say.

"_I have failed you Anakin, I have failed you", Obi wan said to him._

_He knew there was only one last thing he could do for Anakin, Obi wan knew and that was to destroy the creature that he had become._

The jedi master landed a vicious strike at Anakin´s side and continued to attack. Step by step, Anakin was falling under his blows.

"That was it Anakin. I have the upper ground", he said as he was standing over him, with his lightsaber raised.

Anakin saw that Obi wan hesitated. He had his own lightsaber in his hand, ready to defend himself, if he needed.

_Obi wan saw himself standing in the middle of the lava seas of Mustafar. He had finally done it, he had brought his former padawan down. _

_It shouldn´t have been so easy, he thought, it was as if Anakin had not really been fighting back._

_Maybe he hadn´t, maybe there had really still been something good in him that was holding him back and keeping him from fighting with his full strength, the voice in his head told him._

_And now, the voice said to Obi wan, kill him, strike him down without mercy. He is not longer your apprentice. Do it for you, do it for Anakin. Kill him, the voice insisted._

_He felt the pressure on his mind getting harder. _

"Don´t underestimate my power", he heard Vader saying and Obi wan saw how he brought up his lightsaber to strike at him.

"Don´t do it", Obi wan shouted at Anakin in a warning voice and was about to bring his lightsaber down, trying to kill his former padawan.

"Master", Anakin yelled and tried to block the blow.

Obi wan saw Vader attacking. He knew he had no choice, he never had any.

Suddenly, Obi wan stopped in his movement and froze.

_Suddenly his mind felt completely empty. Like a marionette whose strings had been cut. _

_Next to Anakin, no Vader, he saw a man standing before him, a transparent glowing figure, a jedi ghost, he somehow knew._

"_Obi wan listen to me", the man said, "all this is not real, remember."_

_He hesitated. Obi wan couldn´t remember, he didn´t knew what was real and what not._

"_Obi wan", the man said again, "concentrate on me, concentrate on the force, try to remember what happened."_

_Obi wan did what he was told. Somehow he felt he could trust this man, he knew him. He tried, he tried with all his strength to break free._

"_Master", he heard Anakin saying, Anakin not Vader. He saw how his padawan let his lightsaber fall out of his hand._

"_Come back to us", Anakin said._

_And suddenly Obi wan remembered._

"Luke", he said to the transparent man before him.

Anakin had let his lightsaber fall, Obi wan saw, he was now unarmed. They were on the space station, he remembered now.

"I thought I told you that this blade is your life", he said to Anakin mockingly.

"It is good to have you back master", Anakin replied in a similar tone.

In that moment the sith ghost who had been controlling Obi wan only moments before was now screaming terrible.

"Anakin?" Obi wan said questioningly.

"I don´t know master", he replied.

"What have you done to me", Iblis yelled at everyone.

The jedi and looked at each other. Nobody knew exactly what was happening, but they realised, now they had an advantage.

"Trying to min control Obi wan was a mistake", Luke told Iblis casually. "You have forgot that such a connection works in both ways."

"No", Iblis screamed. He realised what had happened. The damned jedi master was in his mind.

"I have connected myself to Obi wan to save him from you", Luke explained, "and over him, we have a way directly to your core. Like I said so many times before Iblis, your overconfidence was your weakness.

Shaak Ti", Luke said to the other jedi master.

"Yes", she replied. "Form a circle around him", she ordered the others.

The sith ghost continued screaming. He was unable to move.

"You have left us no choice", Luke informed him. "I have tried to reason with you, but for you it doesn´t even matter if the rest of the universe is destroyed. For the sake of everybody else, you have to be stopped."

The seven living jedi, Luke and even Zorrowna united their force powers.

They created a circle that Iblis couldn´t escape. He was trapped.

"It looks as if this is now finally the end for you my master", Zorrowna told him mockingly.

The jedi worked together, they could feel the break in the universe and the black spot that had caused it, Iblis.

Only a small point in the force from their point of view, but the the ultimate source of the disaster around them. He was holding the break open.

They were all concentrating their powers on him.

And Luke could now also feel another presence, one he knew only all too well.

"Ben", he said.

Another transparent figure appeared next to them. Luke, Zorrowna and even Anakin recognised Ben Skywalker.

"No", Iblis screamed again.

He saw what they were doing, he recognised Iblis too. Ben realised now what had happened. He opened himself for the force and added his powers to the others.

"Remember", Luke told the others, "we are all one with the force and the force with us. Connect yourself with it and with each other, act as one. Trust in the force."

Their combined force powers became greater and greater, reached a level that none of them except Luke could have imagined. It didn´t even changed anything that one in their circle was a sith. Their intentions, their aims were one, for a short moment.

They felt how Iblis force structure disintigrated under the powers of the light side. How he was suddenly removed from the universe, from both of them.

Then it was over.

They all could feel the break in the realities beginning to close.

All of them were still standing in the circle, but the dark presence inside it was gone.

Luke, Zorrowna and now Ben could all feel it.

Now where the things were resetting, they were nearly automatically been pulled back to their own universe. Luke had been right.

xxx

Zorrowna could feel it.

She knew, as she was part of the force circle, for a short moment, she didn´t belong to the dark side.

Her intentions were actually selfless. She wanted to save everybody as much as the others, she had acted not only for her own interests.

For a short moment.

In the distance, she could now feel another force signature approaching, a dark one. She knew who it had to be, he was coming.

she knew that she had probably only seconds left in this world before she was pulled back with the others.

This was her chance. Her chance to set things right for her order, at least in this reality. She vanished.

xxx

The jedi realised that the sith in their mid had disappeared.

Luke and Anakin looked at each other. They also recognised the force presence.

"Palpatine", Anakin said.

"We have only a few moments left", Luke told him. "I am send back to my own universe."

Anakin nodded.

"Goodbye father."

A moment later Like and Ben were gone too.

xxxxxxx

_On board of the Invisible Hand_

They would shortly arrive in the Crseih system. Palpatine realised that the jedi had been successful. Whatever had happened, the force had now normalised, the hyperspace routes were working again.

Palpatine smiled. He knew he was right to trust Skywalker and Kenobi.

Suddenly something happened that surprised even him. In the middle of his chambers, a young woman appeared.

She was actually nothing but the transparent form of a human being. But he could feel a dark presence in her. Whatever she was, she was from the dark side.

He was curious what was the meaning of this.

xxx

Zorrowna saw Palpatine standing before her, Sidious. Before he had been corrupted by arrogance and overconfidence, before everything the sith had built up were breaking down.

She could warn him about everything that could happening, could give him information. Here, she could change an entire future, for the best of the sith.

She knew she had no time to tell him anything. It were only moments left in the best case. But she had other methods. She would inform him like Luke did Anakin, she reached her hand out.

Suddenly, she felt the force presences of Luke and Ben Skywalker appearing next to her, grabbing her, pulling her with them, out of this universe.

She wanted to scream, no.

xxx

Palpatine admitted, he was confused. First this woman appeared, she was reaching out to him and then two men next to her, an old and an young one. They were holding her by the shoulders and then all three of them suddenly disappeared.

What was that? A strange message from the force?

A side effect of the hyperspace anomaly that had been plaguing this part of space the entire time and now ended.

It didn´t matter, he thought. For him it was time to collect his apprentice.

CXx

Another chapter finished. A longer one this time. I really hope I get some reviews.


	12. Chapter 12: Epilogue timeline 1

Chapter 12

_The future_

The ship was now hanging in space, directly next to the singularity whose gravitational forces were threatening to slowly torn it to shreds.

They were barely holding their distance. If they came any closer, it would be their end in an instant.

Ben was still sitting in his jedi trance. Valin was watching him.

The jedi on board knew there was not much time left for them, the anomaly was growing with every second. Soon they would be destroyed anyway.

Valin could have seen it on the ship´s instruments, but he could already feel it in the force. The integrity of the ship was at it´s breaking point, it was falling apart.

Then suddenly something happened, as if the anomaly and the space around it was breaking apart and then everything ended.

The things were resetting themselves, the universe was healing,

the circle was closed.

xxxxxxx

_The present_

Ben was awakening. He remembered the things he had seen. From the past?

A young Obi wan Kenobi had been there and Anakin Skywalker, he knew both from holos and others, Father and that sith woman, both force ghosts. They were standing in a force circle around Darth Iblis.

That had been real, he realised. He had been on the other side, at least his mind and they had defeated the threat.

Ben opened his eyes.

He saw with surprise that he was back at the Crseih station. But he remembered that it had been destroyed.

He suddenly realised where he was and when, he recognised that scene

and run forward.

xxx

Zorrowna opened her eyes. What happened?

The last that she remembered was that she had tried to contact Palpatine, but then Luke and Ben Skywalker had appeared and stopped her.

She was breathing, she realised, she had a body, she was alive.

All that went through her mind in the split of a second.

The jedi master Luke Skywalker was standing directly before her. She realised where she was, what was happening, but it was already too late.

Zorrowna recognised that scene. They were back at the point where Luke Skywalker and her had been send back into the past.

In exactly the moment where she had killed Skywalker.

She didn´t want to do it again, but there was nothing she could change.

Her brain had given the command for this attack a long time ago, before she was even sent to the past, her hands were already moving, in fact she had already done it.

In the moment she had reawakened in this time period, she had already made the strike that would kill the jedi master. It was far too late to stop herself.

She could only feel the movement of her own body, watching as Luke Skywalker fell by her hand,

once again or more likely like it happened before.

Then she came finally completely to her senses, she was looking in shock at the face of the jedi master, the man she had just killed. Skywalker was smiling. It was nearly as if he was happy with this ending.

Like before, he vanished. Luke Skywalker was one with the force once more.

Zorrowna remembered that this was the point where everything began.

It were Iblis and then Skywalkers physical deaths that had caused the anomaly in the first place, Zorrowna thought, feeding Iblis experiment with enough energy to shatter the realities.

As the universe had reset itself, it must have sent them back to exactly the point in time where everything started out.

She had only died a few seconds later. That was the reason she was back to life right now. Skywalker had not so much luck, she thought somewhat amused.

Then she felt a force presence coming closer and froze. For a moment, she had forgot how this scene had ended. With her own death.

xxx

Ben saw how his father died by the hands of the sith, again.

He knew somehow he had been sent back to the point before this whole nightmare started. The moment where his father died. He was reliving it all over again. But he was unable to change anything.

He felt the woman before him. There was no triumph, there was no motivation. She felt just empty. Something close to regret, but not really.

She deactivated her lightsaber and let it fall to the ground.

Ben took a last step forward and pointed his lightsaber at her.

"You give up?" He asked her. His voice didn´t betray any emotion. Like a jedi should.

Zorrowna nodded with her head. She didn´t brought it over her to speak for a moment. This single time, she let her emotions get the best of her.

And didn´t manage to speak a word. This was the moment where she was meant to die, she did die, the last time around. She should be dead at this point.

And her life was still in the hands of the jedi around her, whose grandmaster she had just killed, helpless like a marionette because she in fact had already done it.

As she had fully understood the situation, she had let her lightsaber fall in shock.

The last time Ben Skywalker had no real motivation of killing her, despite what she had done. She could only hope that this had not changed and that the other jedi shared his opinion.

"Do you remember?" She finally managed to ask, full of fear and confusion.

On the inside, she was ashamed about her weakness, she was a sith after all.

"Yes, I remember about the past", Ben said, "the force circle, all that had truly happened right?"

"Yes", she answered, "we were there."

"You have killed my father", Ben said to her. On the first look, he was again calm as he said this, but the emotion underneath was easily to hear out.

"I didn´t want to do it", she replied, "at least not this time. But as I returned here, it was far too late to stop myself. I returned in the same moment as…" She broke up the sentence, what she said was already enough.

Ben looked downwards, didn´t knew what to say. He knew exactly what she meant.

"You have tried to contact Palpatine, help him to take over in that period, like he did in our world", he accused her.

"Yes I did. Have you really expect different from me? I am a sith. I have promised your father that I would help against Iblis and I did that, but I never said anything more."

"I understand", Ben said.

Both of them saw that the other jedi were standing around them. The other had obviously no idea what they were talking about.

"Ben?" Valin Horn asked, offering help and at the same time asking what was going on.

"I will explain later", Ben answered.

"Your father", Valin said.

"He is one with the force Valin. Strange, given the situation, this is possibly what he wanted."

"Given the situation? What do you mean?"

Like I said", Ben replied, "I will explain later."

The jedi had now assembled in a half circle around Ben, Valin and the sith standing next to them.

Ben was starring at Zorrowna, thinking what to do.

"Go", Ben finally said. "We will let you go free for this time."

The other jedi were surprised. Ben looked around. Only one of the other jedi was a master, master Kol Barto and even he only for a short time. None of the jedi present had actually more experience than he did and as the son of Luke Skywalker, they would listen to him anyway. In short words, he was in charge of the group.

"Leave this station", Ben told her, "and don´t try to come back."

"I would have no reason too anyway", she answered.

"Ben do you think this is a good idea? She is dangerous. We should arrest her. And by the way, she had killed your father. Why do you want to let her go in the first place?" Master Barto asked him.

"I know. But you might not know about it, but she helped us."

"Helped us?" Valin asked, "how, when?"

"That is a long story. I will tell you when I know everything myself."

"Goodbye Skywalker", Zorrowna said to him.

Then she turned around and walked out of the room. She would leave this system and reach one of hers and Iblis other hideouts, start anew somewhere else she thought. Now that she was finally free of her insane master. What she had told Ben Skywalker was right, she had no reason to return to this place.

_2 days later_

"Do you really think that is necessary Ben?" Valin Horn asked his friend.

"Yes, I think we should do this. I have told you what had happened", Ben answered.

The two jedi knights were standing now on board of a star destroyer of the galactic alliance, that had arrived in the system.

The giant ship, over one and a half miles long, was waiting in space close to the space station.

The captain of the the vessel approached them.

"Master Skywalker we are ready", the man said.

Ben saw that many people referred to him like they did to his father earlier. "Master Skywalker", as if it was a title transferred from the father to the son instead of a rank in the jedi order.

For decades there had always been a master Skywalker in the galaxy, Ben realised and now that was obviously him in the minds of the people.

"You can give the order captain. Thank you", Ben told him.

"All batteries fire", the captain said to the bridge crew.

A second later, the torpedo launchers and lasers of the destroyer were firing at the space station, letting it going up in flames and erasing it from the galaxy. Ben could only hope that also the threat that came from this part of space was gone forever.

He and Valin were watching the glowing remains for a few seconds.

"Excuse me", Ben said then, "I still have other matters to attend to."

He left the bridge. After a few minutes, he had reached his quarters. He was ready as he entered the room, ready to talk.

"Father", he said.

"I am here my son", Luke answered him.

Three force ghosts appeared in the room next to Ben, his father, his mother Mara and his grandfather Anakin Skywalker, the one from this universe.

"Everything is back to normal", Ben said. "But you father, we couldn´t bring you back."

"I am one with the force Ben, I am with Mara", he smiled. "I have waited twenty years to be back with your mother. Accept it, Ben. My physical life ended for a good cause. We have saved the entire universe, two of them."

"What had happened with the other universe?" Ben asked.

Anakin answered this time.

"The other world will continue independent from ours. Including the things you have changed there. My other self will never become Darth Vader and he and Obi wan will possibly find a way to stop Palpatine", he said to Ben and Luke.

"Hopefully this will happen", Ben replied. "I wish I could have safed your life father", he said to Luke.

"Don´t grieve for me Ben. Maybe it is better this way. Remember, my life and my death were connected to the disaster that had nearly destroyed the universe. I wouldn´t want to try the risk to change it.

"We will see each other again Ben", Mara told him. "When you will join the force yourself. Or earlier if something really dangerous should happen", she smiled. "Goodbye Ben", Mara said.

"Goodbye Ben", his father and his grandfather greeted him.

Then all three of them were gone. They were leaving him behind, for the moment.

He knew, like his mother said, he would see them again.

XXCC

The story is not over yet. With this chapter however, the future timeline came to an end.

The past will be concluded in the next chapters of the story.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Anakin and Obi wan were standing before Palpatine, who was sitting in a chair, his hands shackled and before Count Dooku on board of the Invisible Hand.

It was like a twisted version of the events that Anakin had seen in Luke´s memories. But this time he knew who the real enemy was.

There were however obvious differences too. This time Shaak Ti was with them and they were also facing a third dark jedi, the anzati Nikkos Tyris. He was the leader of a group of jedi who had fallen to the dark side and were now obviously working for Palpatine.

One half hour earlier, the Invisible Hand had arrived in the system and contacted the jedi. They had threatened their "hostage", chancellor Palpatine if Anakin Skywalker and the two council members were not willing to come on board and face Count Dooku in person. Knowing Palpatine´s true identity, it was obviously a bluff, a trick to lure them over into their grasp.

The only thing that Dooku or rather Palpatine was interested in right now, was orchestrating a confrontation that would lead Anakin even further to the dark side. And the tragic thing about the situation was that this would have probably worked if they wouldn´t know the truth about Palpatine by now.

But even knowing the truth, they could still not simply ignore Dooku´s demands and fight the separatist flagship with their own star destroyer.

_A half hour earlier_

It was over. The time space anomaly had vanished, the visitors from the future were gone. According to the captain of the star destroyer, the state of the hyperspace had returned to normal.

But then something else happened. They all felt the slight change in the force. A ship had entered the system, one with a number of strong dark side users on board. The jedi knew it before they even heard the report from the clone troopers.

"Palpatine is here", Anakin announced to the assembled jedi.

A hologram of commander Cody appeared at Obi wan´s communicator.

"Master Kenobi, master Ti", the clone commander greeted the two council members, "the Invisible Hand had just appeared out of hyperspace. They are making no hostile moves so far and we receiving a communique from them."

"Okay Cody, put it through", Obi wan told him.

A second later Cody´s face was replaced with that of Count Dooku.

"Greetings master Obi wan, master Ti and knight Skywalker", Dooku addressed them.

"What do you want Count?" Obi wan asked.

"Master Kenobi, I am here to inform you that we have chancellor Palpatine in our hold."

Anakin and Obi wan looked at each other.

Dooku, seeing this gesture and obviously misinterpreting it, continued.

"You have probably not heard it yet master jedi, but the Confederacy had recently attacked Coruscant and general Grievous had taken the chancellor prisoner"; Count Dooku assured them, thinking they had doubts about the validity of his claims.

The attack on Coruscant and Palpatine´s "kidnapping" had obviously worked out exactly like in the other time-line, both Obi wan and Anakin thought. This time however, they had simply not been there for their confrontation with Dooku and Palpatine´s rescue. So they brought the Invisible hand here instead.

"How do we know if you truly have him and if the chancellor is unharmed?" Obi wan asked, putting up an act to be concerned about the sith lord.

"Oh, I think that should convince you Obi wan", Dooku answered.

In the next moment the hologram changed to show a picture of Palpatine, shackled to the chair.

"What do you want Dooku?" Anakin asked him. He made an effort to sound a bit more angry than he truly was, knowing that it was what Dooku and Palpatine would have expected from Anakin Skywalker under this circumstances. From the old Anakin Skywalker, the one who didn´t knew the truth.

"It is good that you ask Skywalker. For now, I want the two council members Obi wan Kenobi and Shaak Ti and the jedi Anakin Skywalker to come over to the Invisible Hand, the rest of your troops will stand down. Here you can convince yourself about the well being of your chancellor and here you will hear the rest of my demands. If any of you should attempt any hostile acts, Palpatine will die."

The hologram deactivated.

"He wants me", Anakin said. "That is the only reason they even came into this system. He wants me to become Darth Vader."

"You are probably right", Shaak Ti answered him after a few moments to think. "We can not take that risk and you had already come close to the dark side in the past through Palpatine´s influence."

Anakin was more than tempted for a moment to tell her that this dark side influence had as much to do with the jedi´s absolute negligence as with Palpatine, but decided that it was the wrong time to exchange accusations.

"We know that the chancellor is not really a hostage", Bol Chatak suggested. "So we can just fight them. We have a star destroyer ourselves."

"No we can not", Anakin replied. Everyone was looking at him. "It seems you all forget something, order 66."

The jedi around him froze.

"You mean that order for the clones to eliminate all jedi?" Roan Shryne asked.

"Yes, remember, Palpatine can activate it anytime if he want. In fact, I believe that the only reason that he had not already done it is that he want to win me for the dark side first. And in the moment that he realises that his plans have failed, he won´t hesitate and activate the order, I can guaranty that", Anakin explained to them.

He waited for a moment to let the implications sink in.

"We can not trust the clones and we can not use our ships against them", Shaak Ti realised shaken.

"Exactly, Anakin is completely right", Obi wan stated. "Actually, if we choose to attack the ship while they have the chancellor as hostage, it would probably give him the perfect excuse to send the clones against us."

One of the other jedi cursed in the background.

"Palpatine´s only real weakness at the moment is that he wants me, the "Chosen One" as his apprentice on every price. He could have already won this war and destroyed us all if he really wanted, but he had decided to wait for a chance to turn me to the dark side", Anakin told them.

"No offense knight Skywalker, but you think he had delayed his entire plans only to bring you to the dark side", Bol Chatak said. "Aren´t you getting a bit full of yourself?"

"No", Anakin answered, "I know from Luke´s memories that me and Obi wan were supposed to be on Coruscant right now, where we had fought Dooku and killed him. The only reason why we are not is that we were trapped here the entire time. And now Dooku comes here with the Invisible Hand of all places and demands us to come over to him. Draw your own conclusion to that."

"Anakin is right", Obi wan told him. "In his ambition to turn the Chosen One to the dark side, Palpatine had already passed good chances to strike against us. Arrogance and power hunger, that are the only chances we can hope to use against him."

"Okay, but what do you propose we should do?" Roan Shryne asked.

"We have to go to the Invisible Hand and confront them. Palpatine doesn´t know that we know the truth about him. If we can take him and Dooku out before they can activate order 66, maybe we have a chance."

"That is suicide", Bol Chatak stated.

"It is better than waiting here to be killed by our own troops", Anakin replied.

"We will go", Shaak Ti decided. "Except padawan Ahsoka."

"What?" Ahsoka called out, annoyed that she was about to be left behind.

"I have a special task to you", the jedi master said to her. "You will return to the ship and disable all communication systems of the star destroyer. Tell the captain, it is a direct order from me."

"Oh, I got it, you want to keep them from receiving order 66 if Palpatine should decide to send it", Ahsoka exclaimed.

"Yes", Shaak Ti replied.

"Good master Ti, that is a good idea", Obi wan told her. "We have no other choice", he said to the others. "Let us go."

xxxxxxx

_20 minutes later_

A republic shuttle was landing in the hangar of the Invisible Hand.

As the ramp opened and the jedi on board stepped out, they were surrounded by a large number of droids.

Before them, in the middle of the droids, stood a red haired woman, a dark jedi, they realised.

"The order was only for the masters Kenobi, Ti and Skywalker to come", the woman said to them.

"Master Shryne, master Chatak and her padawan will stay here and guard our shuttle", Obi wan told her. "Surely this is not a problem."

After a short moment of hesitation, the woman nodded and let them pass.

They were let to a large hall were they found the chancellor and Count Dooku.

xxxxxxx

_Now_

"Welcome, master Kenoby, jedi Skywalker, master Ti", Count Dooku greeted them, "it is a pleasure to see you all again."

Next to the count stood another dark jedi, they realised, an anzati.

"You are Nikkos Tyris", Shaak Ti recognised him, "you and your group have gone rogue two years ago. You have turned to the dark side and now you are working for Dooku?" She added.

"We are working **with **him", the anzati answered, "for our mutual interests."

"Count Dooku", Obi wan said addressing him, "why have you told us to come here?" In fact, he had a very good idea.

"Right to the point like always, I see Obi wan. Good I respect that. You see, the situation is that", Count Dooku explained. "We both know that military right now, the Confederacy is losing the war. But we have one last trump, the chancellor. He is in our hand.

I am here to make you an offer jedi. We are willing to release chancellor Palpatine out of our custody if he is willing to officially accept the Independence of the Confederacy and you masters jedi are here as witnesses for that official act."

What Dooku was offering here was absurd, Obi wan realised. Even if the chancellor would agree to anything, as long as he was a prisoner and threatened for his safety, it would be void before the law. But obviously Dooku speculated that, in the heat of the moment and out of worry for the chancellor, nobody would realise that.

Of course he knew better. All this was only an excuse to get them into a fight.

"Don´t listen to him", Palpatine called out, "stop him, no matter what happened to me."

The selfless martyr, he was really an magnificent actor, Obi wan thought.

"We won´t listen to this nonsense Dooku", Anakin said loud, "let the chancellor go and surrender as long as you still can."

Not a bad acting too Anakin, Obi wan said silently to himself.

"Ah, Skywalker, always full of yourself. You should of course know that on board of this ship is the control mechanism to shut the droid army down, you could end the war right now, if you can defeat me."

With this words, Dooku draw his lightsaber and attacked Anakin and Obi wan. Tyris did the same thing and went against Shaak Ti.

In one point at least, Dooku had told the truth, the jedi realised. This was the flagship of the separatist fleet. Here had to be a possibility to shut the droids down, another bait for them.

xxxxxxx

_Republic star destroyer_

Ahsoka had just finished to shut finished to shut down all communication systems of the ship and was returning to the bridge.

"And you really think that this was necessary padawan Tano?" The captain asked her.

"Believe me, there is a good reason for what we did", she answered him. "We will explain everything later", Ahsoka said nervously.

She looked, in worry about her comrades, at the separatist flagship.

xxxxxxx

_Hangar bay of the Invisible Hand_

Roan Shryne, Bol Chatak and Olee Starstone saw that the droids had now their weapons pointed at them. The force warned them a millisecond before they started to fire and they managed to deflect the laser salves, sending a few of them back to the droids.

In a neighboring room, the red haired woman and a blond man were watching the fight on a monitor.

"The jedi are holding themselves not bad", the man commented.

"Wait till we deal with them in person", the woman replied.

xxxxxxx

Anakin and Obi wan were involved in a heated fight with Dooku and Shaak Ti with Tyris. As anticipated, nobody realised how Palpatine, shackled to his chair, actually his throne, dropped a inconsiderable button, that was just in reach of his fingers.

But they all felt the consequences that followed a few moments later.

xxxxxxx

The jedi master Ki Adi Mundi was leading his army of clones on one of the many besieged worlds at the outer rim.

He was leading a small group of them in a charge as suddenly the communicator on the arm of the clone commander came to life and showed a recording of chancellor Palpatine.

"Execute order 66", the holo of the head of the republic said.

Without a warning, the clones raised their guns and opened fire at their completely surprised general, who had just realised that his troops were not longer following him.

xxx

On another world, Stass Allie was driving a hover bike in front of two of her clone troopers. As they had received the message, they flew in position behind her and shot her down.

xxx

Master Plo Koon was standing in the middle of the separatist outpost, that his group had just conquered, as a large group of clones appeared behind him, ready to execute him. Koon was able to strike two of the clones down before the fire of the others killed him.

xxxxxxx

_Coruscant_

The 501 legion of clone soldiers was preparing to strike against the jedi temple. They would take them by surprise and try to take as many of them down as possible before the jedi would be ready to strike back.

It happened everywhere, on every world, except for the Craith system.

xxxxxxx

They all felt the sudden shift in the force to the darkness. Hundreds, thousands of jedi were dieing.

"What have you done?" Anakin yelled to Dooku and unknown to him, to Palpatine.

"Have I never told you", Dooku began, "that it was me who had killed master Sifo Dias, took his identity and ordered the creation of the clone army", Dooku told the shocked jedi,

"at my advice they also placed a special order in the clones in case the jedi order should ever become disloyal, an order to eliminate every jedi", Dooku smiled.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

"No", Anakin was screaming angrily.

It was happening again, he thought, like before. Despite their best efforts to prevent it. Order 66 had been declared. While they were standing here, jedi were dieing all over the galaxy. Despite all their knowledge about the future, the changes that had already occurred, they didn´t manage to prevent that massacre from coming to place. In that moment Anakin was loosing his nerves.

He threw himself at Dooku and attacked him vigorously. Even Count Dooku, one of the best sword fighters of the galaxy, was overwhelmed by such an onslaught.

In some part of his mind, Anakin knew of course that he was only doing what Sidious wanted. But in this moment, that didn´t hold him back.

Palpatine saw what was happening and and on the inside, he was triumphing. Anakin Skywalker was finally falling to the dark side, exactly as he had foreseen it. The outside circumstances may have been a bit different than he had thought they would be. This entire fight should have taken place over Coruscant. But the struggle between Tyranus and Anakin was exactly what it should be.

However his new, perfect, apprentice was only the last piece in his success. The final part, not exactly necessarry, but it made his victory really complete.

In fact, he had already won at this point. The republic was lying in ruins now, the senate was decimated, the jedi order was being destroyed in this moment and he was at the edge to become the absolute ruler of the galaxy. He had won.

The designs that Darth Bane had begun a thousand years ago had finally come to success. Of course they were. The republic was never meant to last, he thought, too weak, too corrupt, too fast to throw the own ideals over board. That had made it all too easy for the sith to destroy their society from the inside. For ten centuries, the sith lords before him had already been weaken the state and making it ripe for the fall. But he alone was the one who had thought out and realised the final strategy to take over, to finish the process that otherwise could still have taken generations.

Yes, the republic was destinied to fall, but to realise this, it still needed a sith who had a plan and was ready to act, something where many of his predecessors had admittingly been lacking. But he wasn´t and now everything was his.

So why was he sitting here, thousands light years from Coruscant as a supposed prisoner, watching his some jedi fighting each other?

Because of the power. He had been watching Anakin for a long time, longer than anybody would have known. And he knew one thing about him.

Chosen one of a prophesy or not, creation of the force or not, of the lightside or of the darkside, he had the greatest force potential anyone had ever seen, that ever existed. The boy was the embodiment of power.

Palpatine was long sure that Anakin was the final product of the experiments of his former master. The creation of life, of a new being. Darth Plaqueis had wanted to create a ultimate force user, stronger than anything ever known.

He could feel it every time he had met Anakin, waiting under the surface, a power that exceeded everything he knew, that far exceeded him, a power that could destroy him.

The rule of two, in it´s purest form stated that every sith master shall take an apprentice who had the potential to surpass himself, meaning that the new master would be stronger than the last one. When the apprentice had surpassed the master, he had to challenge and kill him and become the master himself. Of course it was not always possible to follow that rule to the letter. If the current master was already very strong, it became more and more difficult to find a fitting apprentice and he Darth Sidious, was the last of the line.

It was true, he had not really defeated his own master, but Darth Plaqueis had simply left him no choice. He had not been ready to challenge his master, but if Sidious had allowed him to continue, he would have sooner or later replaced him with one of his own creations. So he had to result to murder him in his sleep, it was Plaqueis own fault.

It didn´t matter anyway now, in terms like force power, lightsaber techniques and dark side abilities, he had surpassed his old master a long time ago. If he would challenge Plaqueis now, he would destroy him. He was the strongest of them all.

Who could be a real apprentice for him, someone who might become even stronger, who beside Anakin?

Count Dooku had once been the greatest lightsaber master in the galaxy and as a sith lord he was even more powerful than that and right now he was going to his knees before his new apprentice Darth Vader.

He saw that the two jedi masters were watching the fight with growing shock, Shaak Ti still occupied with the dark jedi Nikkos Tyris.

Fools, he thought. They were actually not even worth dealing with them. For years now, they had been following every order he gave. No matter if it was invading planets, attacking cities or besieging entire star systems, they did it all, because of the simpel statement that it was to save the republic.

They had been so easily deluded, joining the army and putting themselves under his command, not knowing that he was planning to send them to their death all along. Many of them had also fallen to the dark side, like the three he had been recruited now. Another good side effect. When the war was over, he would see for a way to either find a good use for this new darksiders or have them destroyed.

They had been nice little pawns this jedi. The entire jedi order under the command of the dark lord of the sith, that was possible the most entertaining part about the entire war. But now it was time to put it to an end. The jedi may have going along with little things like using an army of clones to wage aggressive wars, but what they would never accept is a dark lord in charge of the state. So they were now been eliminated. They were not even of any consequence anymore.

When Anakin had killed Dooku and was turning, he would use the three darksiders to kill the remaining jedi here. This would probably infuriate his new apprentice even more. And even if some of them survived, he would deal with them personally later. Right after they had rescued their "precious" chancellor.

He continued watching how Anakin, no Vader, beat Dooku to the ground. Palpatine was of course completely aware that, should he take Anakin as his apprentice, he could some day be destroyed by him too. He will have to be highly on guard and push himself further and further to avoid the same fate as Dooku was right now expecting. And even then, there would be no guaranty. It was the ultimate challenge for a master.

The question was, was the kind of power that Anakin was promising worth risking the own life for?

As a sith the answer could only be yes.

xxxxxxx

In another part of the ship, close to the hangar deck, the three jedi Roan Shryne, Bol Chatak and Olee Starstone were still fighting the two dark jedi and the battle droids.

They all had felt it a few minutes ago. Jedi were dieing everywhere. Order 66, exactly what they had wanted to prevent, had happened. Around them were lying over a dozen destroyed droids. Despite that, they were still outnumbered and could barely hold themselves. The only reason they had even taken that risk was the hope that they could stop it. But it seemed they have failed.

Bol Chatak deflected a shot of one of the remaining droids with her lightsaber, sending it right back to it´s source and destroying it. But in that moment one of the darksiders, the woman, used the chance to attack her. Chatak couldn´t react in time anymore. She was literally cut in half by the blade of her enemy.

Shryne felt a wave of shock coming from padawan Starstone as she had seen the death of her master. But right now, he had to concentrate on his own enemy. He was in lightsaber combat with the male darksider, while Starstone was trying to deal with the last three droids. The padawan managed to cut off the arms and the head of one of them while fighting off the other two.

In the end, master Shryne was able to get behind the defese of his adversary and cut the man down. The death of the dark jedi caused a sudden release of dark side energy, an explosion that caught the last two droids and destroyed them, but also caught him and Starstone off guard.

A second later, as Roan Shryne had gotten his orientation back, he felt a sharp pain in his back. The other dark jedi, he realised, had used the chance to strike him in the back.

For a moment he let himself slide deeper the force than he ever did before. The jedi master reacted faster than he or Olee Starstone had ever seen anybody move. In a moment, he turned around and cut the dark jedi´s head off her body. The result was a similar explosion of dark side powers like the time before.

Shryne felt that he was thrown to the deck. He was injured and his entire body hurt. A few moments later padawan Starstone was helping him up.

"Master Shryne", she spoke to him urgently, "are you okay?"

"Yes, I guess I will survive", Shryne answered. He looked at his surroundings, checked the situation. "That means unless more droids will come", he stated.

"Master Chatak is dead", she said to him.

"I know, there was nothing we could have done to prevent this."

"We only came here because we wanted to stop order 66, but we completely failed and now is my master also dead."

"The others have still a chance to stop Dooku and Palpatine", he replied, "it wasn´t necessary all in vain."

"But all the others?"

"There is nothing right now what we can do to change it. Listen to me padawan. If more droids will come, you will flee, alone. You will leave me here." He was severely injured and couldn´t move on his own.

"I won´t simply leave you here master", she said.

"Listen to me. Alone you have have at least a chance to get away if more enemies come. If you try to drag me with you we are both dead."

"I understand master."

You see, she heard a voice talking in her head, your master is dead, the entire jedi order is being slaughtered and now master Shryne is telling you to leave him behind and you have of course agreed to it. Yes, you will indeed be a great jedi.

xxxxxxx

Anakin realised that he was reacting that fast now that the others could barely follow his movements. Count Dooku was desperately trying to defend himself and brought his lightsaber in a defensive position.

But Anakin now easily outmatched him. With one other strike, he got behind Dooku´s defense and cut his right arm off. In the next moment Anakin was holding Dooku his lightsaber on the throat.

Then he used the force to pick up Dooku´s own weapon.

He saw that behind him Obi wan and Shaak Ti were still fighting the anzati darksider two against one. Against both of them Tyris was barely able to hold himself.

It were for now only he and Dooku left and Palpatine.

"Good Anakin", Palpatine said cheerfully, "that have you done really well. And now you must kill him." His voice became harder.

Anakin and Dooku were now looking at Palpatine at the same time.

Dooku had heard what his master was saying. For a moment he was speechless. Sisious was throwing him away, he realised, just as he had done it with general Grievous and te other separatist leaders. He had thought he was better than that, he had thought he was more useful for his master. Now he saw his arrogance, how easily he had let himself been placed into this situation.

For a moment, he considered warning Anakin Skywalker, who was talking to him now. But then he realised that it was senseless. He knew how close Skywalker was to the chancellor and any try from him to put the blame on Palpatine would probably only enrage the jedi even more and would him get killed even more safely. His only chance, he knew, was that Skywalker would make the decision not to kill him. As much as he hated to admit it, he was at the mercy of the other man.

Anakin had known that this would happen, but hearing it himself was still somewhat of a shock. Dooku was standing before him, unarmed, wounded and helpless and Palpatine urged him to murder his prisoner.

"Anakin, remember what he had done to all the other jedi, to the clones. He is too dangerous", Palpatine said. "With him around we will never made it out of here alive. He will kill us all the first chance he has, like he did with the jedi. You know I am right."

Anakin realised that he was actually considering this, even knowing what Palpatine was trying. But what was when he was right? When he left Dooku alive now, he could always fall them in the back. What if he killed Obi wan? Kill him now, Anakin thought to himself, then kill Palpatine when he doesn´t expect it. When you can end this war here and now.

The other two jedi also saw what happened, but were not in any position to do anything. They were still occupied with their other enemy.

"Don´t do it Anakin", Obi wan shouted.

The two jedi masters had finally disarmed the dark jedi. While Shaak Ti had blocked one of his attacks, Obi wan managed to hit the weapon out of his hand.

"Do it Anakin", Palpatine repeated. "General Kenobi doesn´t see the whole situation. He wants to follow the jedi code. But you know this needs to be done. Obi wan will thank you later for it", he said.

Really? He thought. Anakin looked at Dooku and tried to see him like Luke would have. He tried not to see simply an enemy or a menace to the galaxy, but as what he had been in the beginning, before Palpatine got to him.

He saw a disillusioned old man, one who had long lost all hope. A long time ago, Count Dooku had been a jedi master. But he had been disappointed by the republic again and again, by all the flaws that he, Anakin had always so conveniently overseen. After all that, he became easy prey for Palpatine´s false promises. Like Anakin in another life, like Anakin he had actually thought he could use Sidious help to improve the galaxy instead of Sidious simply using him.

The entire time Dooku thought he was in control of the situation only to end now as a sacrificial lamb now. For the first time, Anakin looked at Dooku and felt something he thought he would never feel for his enemy, pity, compassion.

He allowed himself for the first time to see the similarities between the old man and himself.

Luke was right, he thought, not Palpatine, not Dooku, not even the jedi. He had been right the entire time.

Killing Dooku because he was a threat? Had Luke thought in the same way, he would have killed Vader and Sidious would have staid the ruler of the galaxy.

For the first time he was actually thinking about what they had been doing in the last years.

The clone wars. What was that? An attempt to hold systems that simply didn´t longer wanted to be part of the republic in the fold by military force.

The clone army? An army of biologically created slaves. They had never even the chance to make a decision for themselves.

How could they have been so blind the entire time that they hadn´t seen what they were doing?

Dooku was not different than Vader. Maybe he could not longer the redeemed, maybe he had simply caused too much damage, maybe he could? But it was certainly not on Anakin to decide that.

It was time to make an example.

He lowered his lightsaber, that he had been holding at Dooku´s throat. Anakin turned to Palpatine.

"You know chancellor you had been like a father for me for years."

That comment took Palpatine off guard, but he had to admit it didn´t come unwelcome.

"Yes Anakin, I was the only one who always tried to understand you."

"I guess I just needed to hear it from yourself", Anakin murmured. "Despite everything I just didn´t want to believe it. I just needed to hear who you truly are from your own mouth. Yes Lord Sidious, I am done taking orders from you."

Palpatine couldn´t believe what he had just heard. Anakin knew, he had not only resisted the dark side, he also knew who he was. How was that possible?

That also meant that the jedi had still a chance to stop him. He was sitting here, open for attacks, he realised. Suddenly Palpatine´s chains slammed open.

How was that possible? Somebody must have betrayed him. Yes, that has to be it.

"You, you have betrayed me", Palpatine snarled at Dooku. That had to be it. His apprentice had been talking top the jedi alone a few times, he must have informed them about him. Dooku had tried to play some game with him.

Palpatine raised his hands and directed his force lightning at it´s full strength at him.

And even if it had not been Dooku, he thought, the man had out-lived his usefulness anyway.

Palpatine saw that Anakin was blocking the force lightning with his lightsaber, actually protecting Dooku.

"I admit", Palpatine stated, "I had never thought that I would see the day where you would protect a enemy. I have to say you disappoint me Anakin Skywalker."

It is not what you have teached me, right my old "friend"?"

"No."

"I have learned to see beyond what you have told me chancellor, I now see more than just your point of view."

Palpatine intensified his force lightning, angered by the idea that Anakin thought he was smarter than him.

"And while you are protecting your enemy, your friends will die", Palpatine replied.

He redirected a part of the lightning at the others in the room. Sidious knew everybody here, everybody who knew his identity, had to die.

The two jedi were barely able to block the attack, the darksider Nikkos Tyris however, now unarmed, was hit directly by it and fell down with a horrible scream. His smoking body was lying motionless on the ground.

"I fear I can not allow anybody of you to get out of here alive." Palpatine smiled.

Obi wan and Shhak Ti were holding the lightning back with their lightsabers and were trying to move forward, closer to Palpatine. The sith lord however saw that. With a force push, he sent Shaak Ti flying into the next wall. It was all too easy, he thought.

"General Kenobi, general Ti, exhausted from the fight? Too bad", he mocked them.

Like he had thought, after their fights with his followers the jedi were not longer strong enough to hold anything against him. No matter how strong you are in the force, at some point tiredness, exhaustion and injuries get even to you.

Alone Anakin should still be something to talke serious, but after his fight with Count Dooku, even he should not longer be much of a threat.

Palpatine draw his own lightsaber, planning to kill the weakened jedi off.

Only Anakin was standing in his way, good. He had not managed to turn Skywalker to the dark side he admitted. That meant he would kill him now.

When everybody here was dead, he would return to the republic and oversee the destruction of the last of the jedi. Then he would search for another apprentice. He wouldn´t have Skywalker, but it would do for now. Maybe it wasn´t such a bad idea after all, having a weak apprentice, someone who would not actually challenge his rule. At least for now.

You know Anakin, you and I, we could rule the galaxy. We could change everything what is going wrong. It is not too late yet."

"You want to change what is going wrong? Yes, I have seen your methods, civil war, mass destruction, murder. You are the first thing that should be changed in this galaxy."

"You want to stop me Anakin?"

"I will stop you", he exclaimed.

"Don´t delude yourself boy. You may actually be the chosen one, despite everything. But you are still far too inexperienced. If you had accepted my offer, you may have actually have a chance, but now you will die.

And later I will go and find senator Amidala. Tell me, did you know that Padme is pregnant?" He smiled. "I may have failed to turn you, but some day your child will take your place."

"No", Anakin shouted.

He and the sith began to clash their lightsabers. But only after a few seconds, Palpatine realised that something was completely not right.

Anakin had realised that he had changed. During his contact with Luke, he had seen countless things, memories that were not really his own, thought, insights, realisations, wisdom. Through this experiences, he had grown, more than anybody would have thought.

A sith reaches understanding through power, a jedi reaches power through understanding. Yes, that had never been so true.

Palpatine realised that Anakin was easily keeping up with his movements, he was even outmaneuvering from time to time. His strength in the force didn´t seem to have weakened during the fight with Dooku, no it was growing, he realised in horror. That was impossible, he thought.

Anakin was becoming stronger in every second. He was losing, he realised in absolute shock.

It was impossible, absolutely impossible, it should have been years before Anakin should be able to even match him.

Finally Anakin hit Palpatine´s guard down and with another move, cut Palpatine´s arm off, similar as he had done it to Dooku minutes before. Like Dooku, Palpatine thought.

"This is now your last chance "old friend", Anakin told him, "surrender now."

"No, no, no", Palpatine screamed. He could still not believing, not accepting what was happening around him. Defeated, he was losing, despite being one step away from ruling the galaxy. After thousand years of planning by the previous sith. All in a few minutes.

It was impossible, it was not acceptable, it couldn´t be.

With a loud scream, Palpatine raised up his remaining hand and throw his force lightning at Anakin again. He wasn´t holding back or showing any restrains anymore, he was only screaming like a wounded animal.

Palpatine was channelling his entire energy into this last attack. He was not longer able to see any reason, he wanted only one thing, to see Anakin dead.

But Anakin came closer and closer to him, pushing the force lightning back. He pointed his lightsaber at Palpatine, made his way through the lightning for the last metres and stepped the the sith lord through the chest.

The resulting explosion of dark side energies was far greater as with the dark jedi, Palpatine´s body was literally eaten up by it´s own energies, the violent outburst scorched the room all around them, the jedi used the force to protect themselves.

It was over.

xxx

"Anakin", he heard Obi wan´s voice a few seconds later, "Anakin are you alright?"

"Yes", he answered, "I have already felt better."

They had all made it, they saw, even Count Dooku.

"Count", Anakin adressed him, "I advice you show us now this device to shut the droid army down, unless of course that was a lie too."

Dooku needed a few seconds to answer. He didn´t know what to say.

"Of course Skywalker. Master Kenobi, master Ti", he addressed the two jedi masters, "would you come with me. And Skywalker", he said, "thank you."

xxx

A few minutes later, the droids all over the galaxy were shutting down.

Clone troopers were entering the Invisible Hand to bring the ship under their control. The droid crew, like the jedi have told them, was inactive.

They found the two jedi Roan Shryne and Olee Starstone, waiting in one of the corridors of the ship for help.

On Coruscant, the jedi under the command of Mace Windu, were able to repel the attack of the clone troopers on the temple, however under great losses.

Thousands of jedi all over the galaxy had been killed by their own clones before finally Shaak Ti and Obi wan Kenobi had been able to contact the surviving senators and convince them that the order 66 was given falsely.

As a result, the clone army had been told to stand down and wait for new instructions until a new chancellor would be declared.

It wasn´t peace, but for the moment, the fighting had stopped.

* * *

The term that a jedi reaches power through understanding, a sith the other way around, comes from the novel "dark lord".

The three jedi Roan Shryne, Bol Chatak and Olee Starstone, who I use as side characters in this story were, as were stated earlier, the jedi protagonists from the same book.

The dark jedi Nikkos Tyris and his two followers originally appeared in the novel "I jedi" and were the founders of the sect called the jensaarai, that was partly based on sith teachings. And they were the ones responsible for the death of Coran Horn´s grandfather Nejaa Helcion.

In this time-line, I had this three temporally recruited by Palpatine in exchange for greater knowledge.


	15. Chapter 15: Epilogue timeline 2

Chapter 15

Their ship had returned to Coruscant. As Anakin, Obi wan and the others were exiting the ship, the welcome was more than divided.

The threat of the droid army and the confederacy was gone and everybody was glad about it, but the damage and the chaos was everywhere.

All in all it was not the heroes welcome that Anakin Skywalker and Obi wan Kenobi were used to. They were however both quite glad about it under this circumstances. Right now nobody felt like celebrating.

Millions on Coruscant had died by the bombings during the attack of the separatist fleet.

Thousands of jedi had been killed by the assault of the clone troopers. The number of the order was reduced to less than a third of what it had been at the beginning of the war.

Billions of people all over the galaxy had died during the war.

The surviving members of the senate had done everything they could to reestablish order and keep the state working as good as they could.

One senator in particular was waiting for them now.

"Padme", Anakin greeted her happily and run to her. "I am so glad that you are alright. As we heard first about the senate, I feared you could be…"

"I am okay Anakin", she told him, "but some of the other, people I knew, they are dead."

He pulled Padme to him and kissed her. She saw incredulous that Anakin was hugging and kissing her in front of the two jedi masters.

"They know", Anakin said to her.

"You mean you have told them?" She asked him. Padme was on one side quite happy, she never liked the idea of hiding her marriage very much, but on the other she was unsure how the jedi would react.

"A lot had happened Padme. I will tell you everything later. Padme", he said, "there is something that you should know right away. Palpatine is dead."

"The chancellor is dead?" She repeated.

"Yes and it is not something you should be sad about Padme. He was the sith lord. The entire time. Palpatine was the one who had started the war. The assault on the senate, on the jedi, it was all only a plot of him. He wanted to become powerful enough to take over the state."

"He had nearly succeeded", Padme replied, thinking about what could have happened. "I know I should be more surprised Anakin, but I feared for some time now that he was only using the war to gain personal power. But I never wanted to tell you directly, I knew he was your friend."

"It is alright Padme, you were right about him, you were right."

"Anakin, we should go to the council now", Obi wan reminded him. "We have to report to the others what had happened."

I know. Obi wan, I have made a decision."

"And what is that decision knight Skywalker?" Shaak Ti asked now.

"I have decided that I won´t leave the jedi order, at least not on my own accord. But it is still possible that the council will ask me to leave."

"I can hardly imagine that with all the jedi that the order had lost. We need you", Shaak Ti replied.

"Oh yes", Anakin said, laughing sarcastically, "a year or even a few weeks ago I would have to fear to be expelled from the order because my attachments could undermine my mental balance. But now where the most jedi are dead, the order can not manage to lose me. It is really strange how fast our ideals change as soon as the situation demands it."

"Why exactly are you saying that Anakin?" Obi wan asked him.

"Obi wan, master Ti, this entire reason this war was fought from the beginning to keep star systems that didn´t longer want to be part of the republic by force from leaving and to help Palpatine to rise to power. You know that I am right."

Both jedi masters looked at his but didn´t say anything.

"Many of this worlds had good reasons for leaving in the first place", Anakin continued. "They were treated unjust by the senate or were simply left alone with their problems and everything that we could think of was invading their planets."

"In prinzip you are right Skywalker", Shaak Ti replied, "but…"

"But what master T?i" Anakin replied. "We were blind. I had been until I saw Luke´s memories and everything from another point of view. He had spend years fighting the thing the republic was turning into. The entire time,we have been supporting a tyranny instead of fighting it."

"Yes you are right", Obi wan finally admitted.

"We have not seen that Palpatine was a sith, we have not seen that he was taking advantage of the war, we have not seen that joining the military and leading an army with suspicious heritage was a bad idea. Why do you think was that? Because we were shutting ourselves off from anything and everybody. We were not longer able to see what was before our eyes.

Obi wan, I have memories of a jedi master in my mind, one who had led the order for decades. He was married, he had a son and that didn´t keep him from his duties. He had turned my older self back to the light something that he was only able to do because of our bond in the first place, he defeated Palpatine and rebuilt the entire order.

As his wife had been murdered by a sith, he nearly fell to the dark side because of it, but in the end, he resisted again and one of the reasons for it was that the rest of his family gave him stability."

"A jedi had to be able to let go", Shaak Ti reminded him.

"Able to let go if it had to be", Obi wan pointed out. "We have to accept that there are people and things we can not save. But we, we use it as a excuse to not even try and let people die left and right", he said angrily. "I did this when I let Shmi Skywalker behind on Tatooine. When Anakin began to have visions about her death, I ignored him and forbid him to go to Tatooine by himself. I thought I was choosing my duty over personal matters."

"Master", Anakin said.

"I thought I was following the ideals of our order, but in fact I made a mockery out of it. I let a woman die who could have easily been saved simply because I was too arrogant to act, I caused a disaster and helped to drive my padawan to the dark side."

"Master, I, as my mother died, I lost control. I killed the tusken who were responsible, all of the. I was the one who did this, not you. That is something else I will have to take responsibility for."

"I understand Anakin. But you at least have changed. You have renounced the dark side. Far too many of us have gone down that path. Do you know how many of us, who had been trained from early childhood, who had been raised sheltered by the order, had turned to the dark side at the confrontation with the violence of the war?" He said, looking more at Shaak Ti than to Anakin.

"Of course, the were unprepared", Anakin pointed out. "How can you be able to deal with your emotion if you have never learned to face them?"

"You mean, our code, our entire order is wrong?" Shaak Ti asked both of them incredulous.

"Flawed", Anakin replied. "The jedi order accepts the fact that atachment and strong emotions can lead to the dark side and so they do everything to keep their students from having them in the first place to avoid the dark side.

That however is no solution but only a way to avoid the problem. And when the jedi then finally come in a situation where they are faced with strong emotions, they are unable to deal with it and fall to the dark side pretty easily."

"That all doesn´t sound very encouraging Skywalker, master Kenobi, but deep down, I know you are right."

"And that is the reason I want to stay a jedi. Despite everything what have happened and what I have done, not only for myself. What this order needs is a different opinion, someone who is able to see things from another point."

"I understand that Skywalker. As far as it comes to me, you have freed yourself from the dark side with your latest actions. I will in every case support you", Shaak Ti told him.

"I will of course too", Obi wan said.

"Thank you, both of you", Anakin answered. "Can you give us a moment alone please? Then I will come", he said with a look at Padme.

"Of course", they said.

"Ani", she said as they two jedi masters were out of range, "there is something else I have to tell you, something wonderful."

"Yes?" He asked, completely knowing what the answer was.

"Anakin, I am pregnant."

"Somehow I have known that you would say that."

"Have the force told you that?"

"In some sense you could say that. It is a long story that I will tell you when I am back from the council, a story about someone I have met, someone I should tell you about."

xxxxxxx

_Jedi temple Coruscant, 15 years later_

The jedi master Anakin Skywalker was watching his children Luke and Leia and a few other padawans, who were involved in their lightsaber training. His and Padme´s children were raised as jedi, had however far more contact to their family as it in the earlier version of the order would have been the case.

Luke was currently in a dual with one of the other students, a girl named Mara Jade, who he remembered from the older Luke´s memories.

Many things had changed in the last years from the time-line the other Luke had lived through. After Palpatine´s death and Dooku´s capture, the republic and the rests of the confederacy came to a peace agreement. Some systems agreed to come back to the republic under a new senate. Others stayed independent. It wasn´t an ideal situation by many people´s opinion, but it had been far better than the tyranny of the empire in the other world.

Count Dooku had renounced the dark side after the end of the war and stood willingly trial for the things he did. He was sentenced to spend the rest of his life under arrest on a exile-planet. From there he stood often in contact with Yoda and several other jedi masters.

The jedi order was willing to consider many of Anakin Skywalker´s views, even if under some carefulness. There were in fact many jedi who shared his opinions. In face of the latest developments, some beliefs were started to be questioned.

Different opinions in the order were however nothing to be worried about. Like Yoda had said it, the jedi order needed to develop if it wanted to survive.

Anakin continued to watch the mock fight between his son and the red headed padawan.

He asked himself how much his son when he would be older would have been in common with the jedi master he had met 15 years ago. In many ways, at least Anakin thought so, Luke seemed to be starting to shape out very similar.

Or how much Leia with the woman he remembered from his memories. He knew Leia had some interests in politics, in first line because of her mother, but she also knew Bail quite well, her "adopted father". Maybe he himself had unconsciously encouraged it a little bit, because he knew that was how she was meant to be.

In any way, he was proud of his children.

xxxxxxx

_The Yavin system_

The small group of jedi archaeologists were observing the ruins on the jungle moon. They had been planning this expedition for over a year now.

The fourth moon of Yavin was harboring the remains of an old and long destroyed culture. More was not stated in the official records in the republican archives. Yavin 4 was a unpopulated, barely known world at the edge of space.

Some time ago however, a member of their group had brought up the theory that the artifacts here were actually of sith heritage and so the jedi order had decided to organise an expedition team. A group of three jedi was sent.

They had found out very quickly, that their theory had been correct.

The walls of the different temples were full with scriptures that they had identified as ancient sith symbols. Everything, the temples, their designs, it all came from the sith.

They had been here for a few weeks now. In the beginning, they started to hear a voice in their dreams. Someone was appearing to them in their sleep, someone they knew. Then, the creature that lived in this place began to come to them directly.

One of the jedi was just trying to translate one of the sith scriptures, trying desperately to understand it.

He at first didn´t realise the dark presence that was appearing behind the man.

"Shall I help you reading this my young student?" Exar Kun asked the young jedi.

"Thank you master", the man replied. "I would really apprecionate your help."

* * *

This was the last part of Divergence. I have an idea for a sequel. The last part of the epilogue was already an outlook for this.


End file.
